Managua, Nicaragua

THANKSGIVING
We spent Thanksgiving on a bus crossing between Honduras and Nicaragua, but it was a nice bus and it had a toilet so it wasn't all that bad. Sara was feeling homesick throughout the day but we treated ourselves to a Thanksgiving feast of fried chicken and plantains for dinner, followed by numerous bottles of the local beer - Victoria. Not your traditional holiday celebrations but then again Nicaragua isn't your traditional country.

A few people had warned us about Managua so we are taking a few extra precautions. It's one of those cities where the word 'armpit' comes leaping to mind when trying to describe it. The setting is potentially idyllic - on the lakeside, surrounded by lush fertile rolling hills - but the place is filthy and lacking of any charm. Near the lake there is a huge abandoned church with one of the turrets missing. All of the major commercial buildings have been moved to the outlying areas of the city for fear of further destruction making it an annoying place to get around quickly.

Managua Cathedral - damaged a few years after it was completed and now derelict

 Monument commemorating the soldiers killed during the Nicaraguan Civil War

Today we have decided to treat ourselves to a movie or two. We've found a nice cinema nearby so we plan to see Harry Potter and Red Dragon before venturing to Leon tomorrow. It's our holiday gift to ourselves. For two nights we stayed just around the corner from the bus station at the Hospedaje Quintana for a bargain US$10 for the stay - we spent more money on beer from the fridge than we did on the room.

Our modest room at Hospedaje Quintana

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

BANANA REPUBLIC
Honduras is known as the banana republic and there is a good reason why. At the end of the 1900s, US traders took an interest in bananas produced in northern Honduras. With advances in refrigeration, and the relatively short boat trip to southern USA the banana industry boomed. US companies who wanted to purchase land where given generous incentives by a succession of Honduran governments. By 1920, three quarters of banana growing lands were owned by US companies and over 60% of all Honduras’ exports were directly from bananas. The economic success of the banana industry made the banana companies very powerful within Honduras and many of them aligned themselves with political parties. Unlike its neighbours, Honduras failed to foster an indigenous landholding elite which led them to become controlled by US banana interests – hence the name ‘banana republic’.

TEGUCIGALPA
The name sounds like a bit of a mouthful but many of the locals call this place Tegus (teh-goose). It’s not the prettiest of places but we are staying in a decent hotel which makes it bearable.

Cathedral in Tegucigalpa

We had a brief scare yesterday when we arrived. Sara and I had walked about 1-2km from the bus station with our backpacks on and we decided to stop for a few minutes to take counsel. I pulled out the guidebook to take a look at the city map and the next thing I hear Sara yelling at somebody to her left – I was standing to her right. Someone had run up to her and grabbed her wrist and was trying to pull her watch off. With our backpacks on we both weigh about 15kg heavier so Sara had a lot of weight behind her. The man must have realised that he wasn't going to get the watch off her hand so he pulled away and ran off down the street. I wanted to run after him but I had my backpack on and also my shower sandals, which are not built for running, so the both of us just watched in stunned silence as he ran down the street. He had broken one of the pins on Sara’s watch but the more disturbing thing was this happened in broad daylight in a busy area. After six months of traveling it’s the only real incident that we have encountered first hand. Later that day we got Sara’s watch repaired for 35c but I didn't get a receipt so I may have a hard time explaining it to the insurance company. Accommodation was at Hotel Iberia for US$10 a night.

Sara at one of the many Internet cafe's we've frequented -this one in Honduras

The trip continues. Tomorrow, Nicaragua.

Copan Ruinas, Honduras

COPAN
Today we visited the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Copan - in Honduras but very close to the border with Guatemala. The site is well known for the awesome stelae depicting the history of the empire and the huge hieroglyphic staircase decorated with the longest single glyph in the Mayan world. We had waited an extra day to explore the ruins because yesterday was a bit overcast and we wanted to wait until the weather was perfect. Today the sun shone brightly so we took our time and had a leisurely breakfast before wandering the one kilometer down the road to the ruins. The wait was well worth it.

Sara & I at the uncrowded and hugely impressive Copan Ruins

  One of the many stelae at Copan

 Me at Copan 

 One of the many glyphs

 The staircase with the longest single glyph in the Mayan world

SNAKE
For Sara today though will be better remembered as the day we saw a snake. The only other snake except for the one I ate in China. Sara has an unusual fear of snakes. The kind of fear that causes one to completely lose control of ones bodily functions and go completely hysterical. If Sara were to tell the story she would probably say that a six foot snake leapt from a tree branch above us to the ground before our feet, raised its head and struck with potent force, fangs reared, at our ankles. In reality though the poor little thing happened to be on the path in front of us as we left the ruins and it quickly scurried out of our way into the forest. The screaming and wailing would have people believe otherwise. Needless to say we are both alive and well and have stocked up on anti-venom.

Today's run in reminded me of a couple of other times that Sara has been carried away with what she saw. On the train through Siberia she claimed to have seen an emu in a field full of cows. She watched the emu for ages, transfixed, as it stood still in the field. It wasn't until I took a good look that we discovered it was just a man standing behind a cow. Last week at the restaurant at the Tikal ruins Sara asked one of the tour guides the name of the blue bird that was standing outside by the gutter. The tour guide furrowed his brow and ignored her at the time. It was so tall and graceful and was the most beautiful blue you have ever seen, with shock white legs and a long slender beak like a crane. After breakfast when we left the restaurant Sara was devastated to discover it was just a piece of blue rope hanging from a wire.

This afternoon we relaxed with a few bottles of the local brew - Salva Vida (Lifesaver) - and read our respective books in the hammocks at Hotel California - a steal for only US$6 a night. We had dinner at a place called Tunkul and the total bill for an amazing meal, including drinks, was less than US$10 for both of us. Tomorrow we leave Copan Ruinas with the aim of getting a few towns closer to the capital city without spending too much time on the bus.

Sara @Hotel California

Sara at the Guatemala/Honduras border

Panajachel, to Antigua, Guatemala

VOLCANOES

I love volcanoes. For some reason I just love they way they look. When we arrived in Panajachel, a lovely little town on lake Atitlan, we found no fewer than three huge volcanoes scattered around the lake - all of them over 3,000m. We booked two nights at the Santa Elena guesthouse for about US$10 a night and had dinner by the lake. In the past this little town was renowned as a hippy hangout but it seems to have changed a little since the 60s. We took a boat across to a small town on the other side of the lake, San Pedro, and got lost in the maze of streets in the afternoon heat. I had been tempted to try and climb the San Pedro volcano but I couldn't agree a decent price with a guide. In the end we were happy to just walk around and catch the boat back to Panajachel as the sun went down.

The bus that deposited us in Pana - chickens not visible

 San Pedro Volcano from Lake Atitlan

Today we're in Antigua but in a few short hours we catch a shuttle across the border to Honduras - it leaves at 4am. Today has been one of those days to remember because I finally got to climb a volcano, an active one at that. Pacaya is right next to Guatemala City and at 2700m it isn't the tallest volcano in the area but it is the only active one. We had been warned about bandit attacks over the past few years but the tour company here in Antigua assured us that we would have two tour guides and three armed guards during our climb which helped to calm any fears. The climb was a lot harder than I expected. The last 40 mins was straight up through loose volcanic rock. At times we were taking one step forward and sliding two steps back. But onwards and upwards we climbed until we finally reached the windy summit just before sunset but we didn't stay long. I couldn't feel my ears and the steam made it difficult to breathe and see much. A quick look into the crater though revealed a strange red glow - lava?. On the walk down we slid most of the way down the scree slope then emptied our shoes of all the rocks before continuing. The sun sank and was quickly replaced by a brilliant full moon to light the path. The lights of Guatemala city glimmered in the distance, beckoning me to return back down to earth. The feeling returned to my ears.

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

BUS EVANGELISTS
The overnight bus ride to Guatemala City was very frustrating. The air conditioning was turned up full and it was so cold on the bus that we barely managed to sleep at all. We probably managed an hour or two but kept waking up with the shivers. We arrived, jaded, at 6am. At 7.15am we boarded another bus headed west in the general direction of Quetzaltenango - which was our target for today. The fact that the bus wasn't actually going there didn't stop the bus driver from herding us onto the bus anyway. We would find out what we needed to know later. During that bus ride we were subjected to sermons from three different bus evangelists and a sales pitch of 20 minutes from some punter selling tablets that did something we couldn't understand. I wanted to know if they were sleeping tablets. The locals gave each speaker much respect and didn't seem to be bothered by them in the slightest. Five hours later at an unknown small town we were told to get off the bus, grab our bags and jump aboard a much smaller US school bus type contraption. Confused and beaten into submission by the last 14 hours we followed directions and threw our bags on the roof and squeezed into the packed bus. There was much humour as it turned out we where the only foreigners on board and obviously not used to Guatemalan buses yet. We drove through the lush hills, up past 2000m and into the clouds, stopping briefly as a mud slide had blocked part of the road. On and on for the next two hours in close quarters and finally we made it to Guatemala's second largest city, nestled snugly next to a huge volcano. We've been here for two days now and tonight we managed to meet up with an old friend of mine, Mike Paulsmeyer, who has come here to learn Spanish. Unfortunately Mike was away for much of the weekend ironically in the town where we head to tomorrow - Panajachel - but we managed to hook up tonight for dinner and a beer.

Meeting up with my old buddy from Salt Lake City in Guatemala - Mike Paulsmeyer

Quetzaltenango town square

 Locals in Quetzaltenango

Belize to Flores, Guatemala

THE TAN
We spent three great days on Caye Caulker in Belize laying in the sun and eating seafood. Sara worked diligently on her tan and managed to achieve a colour somewhere between cream and ivory, but not quite as dark as beige, but darker than bone. She was incredibly impressed with the colour change and quite pleased to avoid turning pink.

THAT CASSETTE
We took a bus from the Belize capital across the border to the Guatemalan town of Flores yesterday. Flores is situated on a tiny island in Guatemala's second biggest lake about 70km from the border with Belize. I'm not exactly sure on the official rule with islands and bridges but this island is connected to the mainland by a 500m causeway so it isn't an island in the sense that we didn't have to catch a boat to get here. Nonetheless the setting is very pretty and we've been impressed by the food and the people here in our short stay to date. We chose the Toucan Guesthouse - a bargain at US$8 a night with a real toucan in the garden to keep us amused.

Toucan @Toucan Guesthouse

We have noticed that all the buses in this part of the world seem to have the same greatest hits collection cassette which the driver plays non-stop and occasionally at volume throughout the journey. We have heard 'Love hurts' by Nazareth and 'My heart will go on' by Celine Dion more times than any one person should safely endure. Whereas the former is a classic piece of rock legendary which I don't mind so much, the latter is a terrible piece of tripe from an overrated movie. The same could be said for a few other songs on the tape in question, namely 'I will always love you' - Whitney Houston, and 'Hopelessly devoted to you' - Olivia Newton-John. These songs haunt me now.

TIKAL
Today we visited the Mayan ruins of Tikal, about an hour north of Flores. It was supposed to be one of those sunrise trips but like many of our other sunrise trips it rained so we watched the alleged sunrise from the restaurant near the gift shop and drank coffee until the rain stopped. To get to the ruins you need to walk for about 30 minutes through secondary jungle growth and many of the temples have yet to be fully excavated - we walked straight passed Temple III believing it to be a hill when in fact it was a 55m tall structure that has yet to be touched. We were surrounded by howler monkeys making a tremendous noise as well as anteaters, toucans, parrots, woodpeckers and even a huge tarantula that one of the locals pulled out of it's hole.

Breathtaking Tikal

Temple V

  Temple IV

Me being more of an active type of tourist decided to climb all of the temples (except for the two that were off limits) while Sara, content to be a passive observer, watched from a distance and read the guidebook. The locals are very proud of their Mayan heritage and so they should be. Tikal is brilliantly clean, well maintained and the jungle setting is truly fantastic. One of the Star Wars movies was filmed here but I can't recall which.

The Great Plaza near the Temple of the Great Jaguar

LA VACA ES MARRON
My Spanish is progressing slowly. My vocabulary is up to about 200 words and I am able to say interesting things like 'the cow is brown' (see above) and 'here is a pen' which has, to date, been staggering useless to us in our everyday travels. Still it's more than I have bothered to learn in any other country, although in Mongolia I learned to say 'I hope your animals are fattening up nicely' in Mongolian and use it on a Mongolian herdsman who replied with the customary 'fattening nicely, thank you'. It's those small successes that we have learned to celebrate.

Tonight we catch the overnight bus to the capital.

Caye Caulker, Belize

NO PROSTITUTES PLEASE
After Chichen Itza we decided that it was time for a change of pace and a change of country. Belize is the sixteenth different country of the trip so far and it's probably the most laid back as well. We caught a bus straight into Belize City, the charmless capital city, and successfully negotiated the back streets on foot until we found what our guidebook described as the cheapest place in town - the North Front Street Guesthouse for US$15 a night. The sign on the front door stipulated that no prostitutes or gigolos were to be entertained in the rooms at any time - to which I laughed - and then gave more thought to as I had just met a bloke on the street called Byron who wanted to take me out for a beer, and insist I pay.

TROPICAL PARADISE
The following morning we caught a boat through the mangroves out to one of the islands off the coast. Over the last few days we've been doing nothing but sitting on the beach and enjoying the hot sun and cool sea breeze. We're staying at a hotel called Tropical Paradise (about US$17 a night) which fronts the south end of the main beach on the island which is frequented by pelicans for most of the day. Many of the locals are incomprehensible since, although English is the official language of Belize, they speak Creole, usually drunk Creole at that. To my untrained ear they use the word 'panny' far too often for it to mean just one thing. On our first night we at in a restaurant with a couple of older locals who were arguing at the top of their voices but we could barely understand a word they were saying. Sara was convinced it was a religious discussion but I knew they were disagreeing on whether Empire Strikes Back was better than Return of the Jedi. May the force be with you.

Tropical Paradise Guesthouse in the background

 Our own little piece of beach

 I found a really cool tire swing

Valladolid, Mexico

CHICHEN ITZA
We made it safely to Valladolid last night and found a room for two nights at Hotel Lily for US$13/night. Today we wandered around the crowded ancient city of Chichen Itza. The place was absolutely packed with people on guided tours presumably from nearby Cancun or Playa del Carmen. It didn't detract from the amazement though and we spent a few hours inside the grounds under the hot sun. The main Pyramid is the Mayan calendar in stone. There are 18 terraces representing the 18 20 day months in the Mayan calendar and four staircases each with 91 steps leading to the top terrace - each step plus the top terrace represents one day of the year. There is also another pyramid inside the main pyramid which climbs 61 stairs, almost to the top terrace, where the sanctuary contains a brilliant red jaguar with spots of simmering jade. It was hot and muggy inside the pyramid and little claustrophobic so Sara decided to give it a miss. I'm so glad I climbed it because within a couple of years the Mexican government would prevent tourists from scaling the steps to the temple - you can't take some of these photo's anymore.

El Castillo

 Group of the One Thousand Columns

 Temple of the Warriors (taken from the top of El Castillo)

 Temple of the Jaguars (taken from the top of El Castillo)

 It looks like we're alone but we timed this photo to make it seem deserted

We've decided to leave Mexico tomorrow and head south into Belize. We are looking forward to a few relaxing days on the islands off the east coast before searching for more Mayan ruins in Guatemala.

Mexico City, Mexico

FAMILY FEUD
Any apprehension we had about Mexico City quickly vanished soon after we arrived last Sunday. We were expecting an extremely crowded and dirty city which we did but we also found that it held a certain charm. We found a cheap hotel room, at Hotel Principal, close to the central square (the Zocalo) in the Historical Center area - at US$9 it was the cheapest room we had found in Mexico so far. That evening we searched a few more hotels and decided to upgrade the following day to a much nicer place, Hotel Juarez for US$15, around the corner based in part because it had nicer pillows but also because it had a TV (we are addicted to Mexican Family Feud every night at 7pm).

The Metropolitan Cathedral in the Zocalo

 Ginormous Mexican flag next to the Zocalo

ROTISSERIE POLLOS
We spent the next few days seeing some of the recommended sites including the excellent Anthropology museum and the ruins at Teotihaucan - according to legend where the Gods (not sure which ones) gathered to plan the creation of man. The streets around our hotel for a few blocks were being repaved so it was noisy and dusty. The streets were closed to vehicles but open to foot traffic but the open manholes and ditches made it very hazardous walking around, especially after dark. We found a small stall that sold rotisserie chickens and each night we bought half a chicken for US$2 and took it back to our room and tried to play along with Family Feud. One evening Sara got hit by a car (at slow speed) and accidentally locked herself in the toilet but apart from that it's been business as usual.

The Temple of the Moon

The Temple of the Sun

Sara at the base of the Temple of the Sun

JOHNNY SAYS
Today we broke Johnny D'Arcy's number one travel rule and took a flight - from Mexico City to Cancun. Now we're waiting next to the bus station about to catch a bus to Valladolid, not far from Chichen Itza. Tomorrow we should we wandering around the ruins.

Patzcuaro, Mexico

DAY OF THE DEAD
Last night the day of the dead celebrations went off around Morelia as people flocked to the streets and graveyards to hold candlelit vigils in respect of those passed away. The city was covered in marigolds and the streets were alive with kids of all ages in Halloween costumes. We celebrated by buying a huge rotisserie chicken.

Today we caught the bus to Patzcuaro, about 50km from Morelia, and find ourselves in a tiny town with far too many people. I think we must of got the last hotel room in town because the place is just a seething mass of people everywhere. The Posada de San Rafael cost us about US$14 for the night but it was charmless compared to where we had stayed in Morelia. Patzcuaro is the center of the day of the dead celebrations and apparently Mexicans flock here each year in huge numbers. It’s a lovely little highland town with some great colonial-style buildings but we will only stay one day. Tomorrow we head off for even more mayhem – in Mexico City.

Morelia, Mexico

ANOTHER OVERNIGHT BUS THAT DIDN'T LAST THE FULL NIGHT
From Mazatlan we caught a bus during the day to Guadalajara and arrived there at about 9pm. After looking at the bus schedule we decided it was best to head straight to Morelia on an overnight bus rather than stay in Guadalajara for any length of time - the only reason for going there was because of the good bus connections. The overnight bus was a bit deceiving because it arrived two hours ahead of schedule at 2am, probably because there was no traffic on the roads and the driver drove like a maniac. Because we were so early we had to get a hotel room for the night which through off our plans since we had planned to sleep on the bus as much as possible. I had read in my Lonely Planet book that Mexicans were only on time for two things - funerals and bullfights, but the experience with the bus has led me to doubt this assumption.

UNESCO
In Morelia we discovered a city of Spanish style colonial architecture so outstanding that it was declared a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1991. It feels more like Europe than Mexico here. We are staying in a lovely Spanish-style villa with a large open courtyard surrounded by two levels of rooms. The rooms are pretty and we have hot water, a TV and a very comfortable bed. The locks on the doors are unique in that the outside latch and inside latch are not connected. Yesterday when Sara went out ahead of me she latched the door shut, effectively locking me in our room. Much to my embarrassment, I had to lean out of the window and call to one of the chambermaids to unlatch the door in my best Spanish (which involved counting to ten and getting six and seven around the wrong way).

Sara and I in Morelia

OUR EVENINGS
Many of our evenings are spent in fierce competition over the backgammon board or playing cards until all hours. In Mexico we have both been practicing a little bit of Spanish. Sara has the jump on me by six years and is very good at getting us around town and ordering food. Yesterday she even filled out a street survey in Spanish. I have been learning to count to a hundred - using playing cards to mix up some of the numbers and slowly picking up words from the television or by hearing people speak. It is a slow process for me and in public I usually rely on Sara to do all the work. Much of the time though we drift into meaningless debates like weather Spiderman could beat Superman in a fight (the answer is no), and why Kevin Costner hasn't made a decent movie since Dances with Wolves (some might say Waterworld was decent).

The aqueducts in Morelia