Honduras - Island Life

Honduras

First thing I noticed was how good looking and well dressed the people were. Probably the best looking Ive seen in North America and a few other foreigners have said that as well. Passed through some massive bus stations that were practically shopping malls full of lovely food, very
modern shops and stylish clothes shops. It´s surprising how rich and modern a lot of things can be in certain countries that in other areas appear to be very poor.




Utila is a small little tropical island in the caribbean with about 13 little cayes off the coast of it. Some of these are small private islands or deserted ones. There was two that we could have rented the whole island for $100 per night between 6 people. Had a good enough crew organised and was mad to do this. Imagine our own island with a really cool house on it for $16 per person. And we could have taken up to 14 or even 20 people over. Unfortunately/fortunately we arrived in the middle of Carnival and the islands were booked up. So we had to make do with celebrating Carnvial!!



Most people come here to dive. We did a few other things but didnt bother diving in the end. Rented bikes to cycle around the island, snorkelled, ate good food and just chilled out. Was more of a holiday from the travelling and it was so so hot. Literally would be standing in a pool of my own sweat! And it was impossible to get away from the heat unless you hid in the ATM which is always AC!! But generally I hate AC so just stuck it out. You ever tried drying yourself right after the shower and possibly start on the top part and by the time you´ve dried down to your toes your wet again all over due to the heat. This is what it was like some of the days. Even the locals found it hot.




The culture here was quite random. There is a great mix of different cultures, colours and accents. Would loved to have talked to more of the locals to find out more about the background but some of them were so hard to understand! And that was the English speaking ones or maybe it was some form of Creole, not quite sure. There are white people, African - Caribbean possibly Garifuna but not sure if they live in this area or another island and Hispanics. Half the time I didnt know what language I was meant to be using chatting to the people but what was weird was some of them spoke English with what I considered a pirate accent. Literally exactly how youd imagine old pirates speaking. I could understand half of it but not whole conversations. And there was even some local blond kids that look totally european but are Honduran with this random pirate accent. Youd really need to hear it to understand!! Quite amazing.

When we arrived across to the island we found out we´d arrived in the middle of Carnival so it was non stop party. People dancing in the streets, parades, reggae music everywhere all up to our last night when we had to leave at 620am. The parade was quite interesting. This is when all the locals came out and we got to hear the cool talk in full!! Besides Carnival we just kinda chilled out. Did some snorkelling and one day rode bikes all around the island. Was so random at one point this big horse came gallopping behind us with a guy riding it with a massive machete in his hand. Would love to have gotten a photo but just missed it. There were great bars built on boardwalks which you could swim off of and another one built in a tree with all sorts of random decorations kinda like as if Gaudi the guy that designed all that stuff in Barcelona had built it!

Photos at Honduras

Two days of Chicken Busing it from Pacific to Caribbean

From Guatemala to El Salvador and then onto Honduras we spent a number of days winging it from tuktuk to taxi to chicken bus to more chicken bus and then even more and then to shockingly AC bus and colectivos. Today for example we just got on 9 different modes of transport. And of course it all worked out. Every bus is there ready and waiting for you. You get off one and someone else calls you over knowing exactly where you want to go. The chicken bus concept in central America is pretty much old American school buses that are now passenger buses down here and you can take absolutely anything on them. And as many people as you want. Half of them are still way more comfortable than most Asian buses and even most Greyhounds I've done in America! And safer!

El Salvador was a bit of a dissapointment. The surf was awful, the weather rainy and we realised after one day it wasn't going to get any better. Couldnt believe how commercial this country was either. McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Baskin Robbins everywhere. All the fast food joints your used to all over the world and even all the ones that are usually only in America, but they are everywhere, even moreso than the states. Huge billboards advirtising all sorts of meal deals also. The same goes for mobile phone companies all over Central. You could be in jungle villages and there was phones for sale. El Salvador also has a crazy number of people carrying sub machine guns and big rifles all over the place. Its a security thing, but really do you need that much security for a kids ice cream shop.

So leaving El Sal we started our journey across the country at 8am. We were originally going to start at 5 but it was raining and decided on a sleep in. These buses are decorated in all sorts of colours on the outside. Throughout the journey people hop on and off while the bus is still moving selling all sorts of things. Felt like those women who used to sell the fruits in Dublin in the middle of Henry street shouting out what they had on offer. But they sold everything from fruits, to clothes, to sandwiches, cold drinks and even onto pharmaceutical products. At one stage about 20 or 30 people hopped on selling down the aisle of the bus. Such an atmosphere. Then they'l all jump off before the bus even stops and before they have to pay for the ride. Besides these there are always really interesting passengers also. A number of times farmers come on with these big mad machetes tucked into their belt, denim jeans and a cowboy hat and a proper central America style mustache.

We decided to just wing it getting across the countries that day. Think it ended up been four or five chicken buses and a number of taxis all for about two days that added up to about $10 USD or so. Walked across the border to Honduras and this was one time not much had changed. Usually I love the differences at border towns. Although the sun was out, was hot and the scenery was incredible. Huge green mountains, long windy roads where every corner is another Kodak moment. In one way a lot of places we've been look like Ireland. A lot of Honduras has reminded us of it. One thing I noticed about Honduras is its probably got the most good looking and well dressed people in North America! Everyone in San Pedro Sula was so stylish. Very modern clothes shops around as well.We decided to break up the journey that evening and stay in a nice hotel, AC and treat ourselves in San Pedro Sula Honduras. The following day after even more buses and random little boats we found ourselves on the island of Utila in the Caribbean.

Guatemala - Mayan Ruins, Jungles, Rainforests, Errupting Volcano's, Amazing little towns in the mountains and beautiful Lakes

Flores:

First stop and wow how things have changed. Our first proper cheap country. Back to the Spanish speaking land again. Crossing the border in the middle of nowhere some taxi driver asks us where were from. Then started talking about France VS Ireland and how Ireland didn't make the world cup. Guatemala is full of mountains, Mayan people, Jungle, waterfalls, rivers and even tuktuks. Its not without its commercial fast food restaurants however. There is too much to do here!! I have already decided that I´ll be coming back here at some stage even if its just for a holiday. There are plenty of people who´ve come and stayed. Lots of jobs going in bars and hostels as well and plenty of people doing Spanish schools. Flores is a small hilly island in the middle of a lake. Thinking it was a big enough city we got geared up to walk the circle of the island only to find ourselves finished within 7 minutes. So spent the day chilling out swimming and then swam about a km out to another small little island! We stayed in a very cool hostel here which had rooms and beds but we choose to sleep out on hammocks for the three nights.





Lanquin:

High up in the mountains above the clouds, swallowed by rain forest and jungle, rivers flowing like mad through it and lots of little huts to stay in. Driving through the countryside we see a lot more Mayan people and its amazing how small they are. Some women are the same height as their 8 or 10 year old daughters. And they all have the most interesting colourful clothes. Half the time I´m not sure if the people here even understand Spanish cause a few times we´ve ordered stuff and something totally different has come out. Or course there was one guy who had a few focal as gaeilge as you do everywhere! Did some random cave jumps, tubing down a river and a hike to come back to our hostel and sauna and a dip in the river.


Sometimes when traveling reality just hits you. Or as a friend once said to me you get a moment. So I'm lying in my hut trying to escape mosquitoes not sure if I've locked one inside the mozzy net or not cause its too dark to see. Lot of the times I forget I'm away somewhere totally different. Usually hanging out with other English speaking foreigners or some people with similar culture and then all of a sudden lying in bed one night and I think, wow, I'm in the middle of the jungle in Guatemala. The rain is pounding down on the grass roof but not seeping through, the insects are chirping away like mad and everyone else was asleep. It feels in one way I'm so close to home because of the people we hang out with. Had just spent the evening chatting in the sauna with some people and this was the first experience in my life of staying in hostels where Spanish was the common language amongst German, Israeli, English and American and here's me trying to speak my broken bits with them!! On the other hand then its those moments that hit you when you realize where you really are!






Antigua - Pacaya

One of the places I´d been looking forward to most in Central America was Antigua. And it didn´t disappoint despite the evening rain. The book says that this city would be as if the Scandinavians had taken over and run it. Very different. Very organized and beautiful surrounded by three volcanoes on all sides. Even 20km before we arrived it seemed very Canadian or Scandinavian. The humidity had gone, there were pine forests and nice two lane highways. Even McDonalds and Burger king looked very classy within the city. And they recycle. We wanted to do a walk up to this volcano, Pacaya that had erupted a month previously. So after been very very hungover we got up at 6am and went out to check the lava flow. Some of it was still smoking and it was crazy how it had just flowed down the mountain and then stopped all of a sudden in some farmers field. There was still smoke coming out of the top of the Volcano as well.

San Pedro - Lake Aititlan

Driving a few hours around towering mountains in the middle of lashing rain and then we circled this corner and in front of us about 1000metres below was this massive blue lake, surrounded by volcanoes, sun shining down on it and little villages dotted all over. In one way it really reminded me of Queenstown. It has loads to do, lots of adventure activities and is beautiful in the sunshine which we got nearly every day. Kayaked across the lake one of the days for over an hour and did some cliff jumps. Rented some hot pools with a group of about 14 of us and about 5 litres of rum which only lasted about two hours. And its so so cheap. Like 2 euros for accommodation and 2 euros for meals. Would have stayed there longer but we were totally rummed out and ready to surf and detox in El Salvador for a bit.

Map of our route is at Pan Am Map

Photos are at Guatemala Photos

Belize - Rastifarian Caribbean - Slow down man you walking too fast.

Belize is what I have always imagined Jamaica to be like. From the moment we crossed no mans land from Mexico everything had changed. It was weird switching back to English again, even found myself trying to speak to the locals in Spanish. The skin colour changes, the scenery, the language and just the way of life. The majority of Belize is from African descent and they have the coolest hairstyles and accents. Every guy has dreads or braids that have been growing for years, possibly all their life. And everything has to be slow! You could be walking down the street at the pace of a two yr old toddling along and people will shout out: "Slooow dwn man, u walkn too fast". Bob Marley and other reggae music is quite popular as is every single person offering us weed. From the moment we left the border there was people wanting to chat to us and tell us where to go, what to see.

We chilled out for a couple of days on an island called Caye Caulker. Small chilled out paradise island in the Caribbean that just moves slow. The police drive around in golf buggy's. Id like to see a high speed police chase in this country. The golf buggy's are about the fastest things that move here. Been a backpacker I'm usually on a budget. I never like to skim on food though. Belize is very very expensive though. Like a sandwich was nearly $10 USD, even pasta and sauce was expensive. So we had to make do with lobster every night which is the cheapest thing on the island!! Three nights in a row there was lobster. And the third night, and I know I sound like a fat greedy slob, but I ended up eating 6 lobster tails that night. This came with chocolate cake, rice, beans, bread etc etc and unlimited rum punch. Youd think they'd have served the whole meal and much more would come out. Then just as we finished two huge plates of unreal chicken wings came out. I could barely move for two days. All of this cost us $12.50 which was about the cheapest thing we could get in Belize where as in other countries this would feed us for a few days!! Don't think Ill ever get to eat that much lobster again!!

We did a really good snorkeling trip from the island. Again picture all these local guys with very dark skin, totally random hairstyles, some of which had never been cut in their lives and then names like Patrick Ahearne. Not sure where the Irish influence came from but they certainly don't look Irish!! During the snorkeling trip we got to swim with turtles, nurse sharks, sting rays and eagle rays. Was def a lot cooler than some scuba diving experiences I have done. We even got to hold and pet the sting rays. Then back on the boat after three stops for more unlimited rum punch which they really do love in this part of the world!!

Photos up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187720&id=509199014&l=748e78f6cf

Yucatan + Carribean - Caught in a hurricane, nearly arrested, swimming with whale sharks!

Made our way up the Yucatan peninsula starting at Tulum a nice backpacker destination with apparantly amazing beaches, skipped straight through Playa del Carmen and Cancun and onto the island of Isla Mujeres. I guess we lasted about half an hour in Cancun before we wanted to leave it.

So driving on a cramped damp sweaty local bus from Palenque to Tulum one night we got caught in crazy crazy rain. Restaurants and roads flooded along the way. Little did we know until the following evening(after we had gone swimming in the sea may I add) that this was the middle or end of hurricane Alex. We were wondering why the beach there was so sandy and windy and deserted! One thing I´ve noticed with this trip is everyone we meet has travelled quite a bit before. Most people have done a few big trips over the last few years and have a lot of stuff to compare it to. The age group is generally our age but have also met some people who are just 19 or 20 and on their second or third big trip. These two girls last year had travelled Brazil to Mexico over land and they said Tulum was their favourite beach for the whole thing. Unfortunately it didn´t live up to its name when we were there. Another great thing about this trip is at every hostel people have reccomended the next place to go to, so for the last month we´ve walked into a new hostel in a new country and known a good few people there and always have a group to go with!! Dave, Kirby you´l be laughing at me with this!! Always looking for a big group!! Sometimes there´s up to 10 of us moving onto the next place which is cool. And always a good mix of nationalities although you do find the hotspots where certain countries hang out!! Some places have lots of Argentinians, some lots of Israelis, some lots of German and then randomly ul bump into a Irish person in the middle of the jungle that lives just down the road at home!!

One day we did a day trip from Tulum to visit some ruins and dive in some underwater caves called cenotes. This is a picture of them. http://www.google.com.gt/images?hl=es&q=cenotes&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
Anyway, to make a long story short, we had a group of 8 of us and made a deal with two taxi drivers to drive us to the first place, wait, drive us to second place and drive us home. We bargained with them and agreed on a price. But after we got out of the first place they started arguing that the price was too low. This argument went on for a while until we decided to give them what we thought would be a fair price for the first leg of the journey and send them on their way. Well they weren´t too happy with this so they called the police. Now when an agreement is made in any part of the world people usually stick to it. In the whole of Mexico everyone is friendly and not one person had tried to rip us off in the whole month(unlike in parts of Asia!!). The other taxi drivers around here and also the staff working at this place were on our side and willing to help us out when the police came. Of course the policeman arrived, didnt give a shit cause he was just going to get a cut and didnt even say a word. We kinda had to pay them then and ended up getting some nice drivers to bring us down to these cenotes which are underwater lagoons, crystal clear waters. We realised we should have paid off the policeman and sent the taxi drivers on their way!!

Cath, a friend I worked with in NZ two years ago was flying into meet us a few days later and travel until mid august so we decided to hang out and wait for her at Isla Mujeres this amazing little island off the coast of Cancun. Five of us left from the hostel here and spent our days on the island drinking rum, eating good food and chilling out on hammocks. Cath arrived and we did a tour on a boat to dive with these whale sharks. http://www.google.com.gt/images?um=1&hl=es&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=whale+sharks&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= I dont have an underwater camera so this is how big they are! It was amazing. They were massive. We´d swim on by them at the same rate watching them ducking and diving in the water eating plankton. Two of us went in the water at a time with the guide. There was small fish just gliding along on the fins of the shark and underneath the fins. I was swimming with a canadian guy and at one point he got to swim between the mother and her baby. Some of these are up to 10 metres and we were within an arms reach of it. Well worth doing besides the seasickness. Half the boat threw up including myself due to the water still been rough from the hurricane. And these sharks are vegetarian so not even sure if theyd enjoy the vomit!!

Photos up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187718&id=509199014&l=a3c402389e

Pacific Coast to the Mayan highlands to the jungle to the Mayan Ruins

We stayed along the pacific coast for a few days in a surfer town called Puerto Escondido. This is where the Mexican pipeline is and there are a few beaches for good surfers and the beginners. It was the kinda place where we just sat on the beach and chatted to randomers all day most of which had come for a few days to surf and ended up staying a few weeks. I guess were spoilt in Ireland cause I still didn´t think the surf was too great unfortunately.


San Cristobel is a lovely Mayan town in Chiapas. Had heard a lot about it from people and it lived up to its name totally. I think about 50% of the people are Mayan here. It has small cobbled stone streets, cool colourful buildings and great food and its nice and cool as its up in the mountains around 2100metres I think. Of course one night when were out looking for bars after they were all closed the only people we bump into on the streets were Irish! Got a really good group in the hostel here some of which stayed with us for a few weeks. The hostels in Mexico have been quite good offering really good breakfasts, sometimes dinners and this one had a bonfire where everyone sat around chatting at night. We did a trip to a Canyon here, these massive cliffs some about 1000metres high, covered in trees and wildlife but rising totally vertically over the water. Was like Milford sound but way way biggeer. Was so impressive. Must have taken about 200 or 300 photos here.


There was also a very interesting American guy named Osker here whom we met a lot of other people all around Central america who knew him even if you only mentioned his first name. He had some very interesting stories. He went out to visit the Zapatistas which are an indiginous rebel group that carry guns and had some sort of coup or something a few years back. A few others from the hostel went. That night at 10 they still weren´t back and we weren´t sure should we be getting worried or what. But then they all arrived back saying it was the best day ever and they´d been drinking with 1000s of Mayan people at some sort of celebration. It was like Paddys day or Oktoberfest multiplied by ten they said!! Some of the locals were passed out on the streets and in the churches drunk! Unfortunately they havnt gotten to finishing off their calender yet. I think the end of the world is still meant to be 23rd Dec 2012!

From here a lot of people we´d met were heading different directions but two american guys decided to stick with us for a while so we headed towards the jungle in a place called El Panchen just outside of Palenque. Again it was Osker who told us about this place but we didnt quite know what to expect. But this was proper jungle. Bridges across gushing rivers, vines hanging from the tallest tree´s, leaves so big you could sit in them and a constant noise from all sorts of animals rattling our ears constantly. There was like a community living in there. Reminded me a bit of the community in the movie the beach just without the beach. Plenty of hippies walking around, looked like they´d just come and never left, treehouses to stay in, hammocks if we wanted. At night there was guys doing poi or fire dancing/throwing which was quite cool but didnt compare to the beaches in thailand at all. I usually get pretty bored of seeing old buildings and ruins but we went to the palenque ruins the next day and it was amazing. Spent hours there and the views of these old mayan buildings in the middle of the jungle was breathtaking. That night and the morning had crazy crazy rain. And once you think it can´t rain any harder then it does. Water was flowing across the roads and even the books we´d left in the room were damp from the humidity. Luckily it lightned up so that we could walk around for a few hours. Little did we know for a few days that this was part of hurricane Alex passing through. WIthin the grounds of the ruins everything just seemed so much more vivid. There was random insects everywhere, random sounds, lightning in the distance, waterfalls coming from nowhere. This was in the jungle - the Palenque Experience!

Photos up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187230&id=509199014&l=55915d607b

and also http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187226&id=509199014&l=861e6e40e0