Living it up in Nica!

So as most of you may have heard we have had a pretty sweet few days! We were in León again for a week after returning from Guatemala where we caught the bus out to the beach for the day and stayed to watch the sunset on the pacific ocean. We pointed in the vague direction of NZ and thought of everybody at home! There was a small (5.1) earthquake just off the coast last Friday and it caused all the power and water to go off for ages, which is awful when you have no fan and are trying to get to sleep! I ended up pulling my mattress onto the floor because it was a little cooler down there! Needless to say we didn't mind leaving the next day when there was still no water...

We took the bus to Managua (the capital) where the driver met us and took us to a huge market in a town 30mins from Managua that is well known for it's hammocks. We spoke to a lady who supplies hammocks for our friends and we chose what colour hammocks we wanted and she is making them for us and we are going to pick them up tomorrow!

After that he took us out to Jinotepe towards the coast where our friends own a coffee farm. They also grow oranges, plantains, mangos, coconuts, avocados etc. It was a beautiful house with a big swimming pool and lots of land around it so you felt quite isolated. That afternoon we had a BBQ with the most amazing meat we have ever tasted and the table was laden with all sorts of treats. We drunk homemade ice tea and ate homemade caramel sorbet after lunch. We then took a tour round the farm and visited the horses etc and in the evening we played cards and drunk nica libres with 12 year old rum and ate gullo pinto until around midnight! Best sleep in a comfortable bed also...

The next day we had fresh fruit salad, hot bread and butter, gullo pinto, cheese, bacon and eggs and coffee for breakfast and then they took us in their amazingly flash 4WD with beige leather seats to visit a volcano. It was one you could drive all the way up through the forest and then walk around the craters at the top, amazing view of Granada and the lake from the top!

We then went back to the farm for a huge lunch before heading back to their house in Managua. We then spent the night there and the next day the driver took me to the hair dressers then he took us to a music shop for Harry to look at guitars and then dropped us at the bus stop to go to Granada.

So we are now in Granada for the next few days before going to stay on the island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua! This is a lovely little colonial town with some good spots to check out, we are especially looking forward to the all you can eat buffet breakfast from 7am-12. It's $5.75 and if you go early and stay until late and use the wi-fi you can have breakfast and lunch! They serve waffles and pancakes and omelets and fruit etc... So excited!

So that is the latest update, it is now Tuesday the 25th of January and we leave Nicaragua next Saturday the 5th of February - only one and a half weeks! - then we are in the States for a week before coming home :)

So yes we are having an amazing time and wishing you could all come and join us here!

Google Map

Map of our travels so far!

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=212821527297960112908.000499eb0ec34ee8ed379&t=h&z=7

Lanquín and Semuc Champey

After our time in San Pedro, Lake Atítlan we decided to take the 7/8 hour bus ride to the region of Alta Verapez to stay in a small village called Lanquín and the nearby attraction of Semuc Champey. We hunted around some travel agencies for a good deal on a shuttle and finally found one that included a free nights accommodation at a popular hostel in Lanquín. The travel agent told us it was a direct bus all the way there and gave us our ticket... Happy travels! Well maybe not...

Getting on the bus in the morning we were told there were huge protests going on that were blocking the roads and guys with machetes etc so we would have to take a different route, this would make us a couple of hours late... No problem... We arrived in Antigua where we were to stop for lunch before continuing on. The bus driver tells us we have to get off and wait by the lamppost where another bus would pick us up in 15mins, apparently this wasn’t a direct bus after all! Along with another three backpackers from England we waited and waited... and waited... Two hours later the shuttle arrives to pick us up. Instead of arriving at 8.30pm, we turn up to the hostel at around 11pm. This was fine, all we needed was a good nights sleep so we asked the driver for our tickets to confirm our free nights accommodation... The driver says something about needing the tickets to get paid and takes off, great! When we get to the hostel the guy says we have to pay tonight and then we get tomorrow night free... the catch! The other three people with us already had reservations for the next night so they demanded their free night and then when the boss came down, they all suddenly changed their mind and said that no-one ever promised any free nights and we all have to pay for every night! Apparently they’d never heard of the travel agency offering free nights... Our first scam... It was all quite exciting really! I secretly enjoy hearing people get angry in Spanish because it’s such an expressive language, I was quite keen to join in but a little too tired and weary. We headed off to the other popular hostel that was literally packed to the brim with people sleeping in hammocks and in lofts etc and finally by about midnight found ourselves a hostel!

We spent three days in Lanquín and the main attraction there was the caves full of bats and lit up spectacularly. We also did a day trip to Semuc Champey where we began by exploring these caves kind of like Cave Stream at home but with more water and they’re much bigger. Our guide insisted on us rubbing the colour from a plant on our faces like tribal paint and we headed through the cave with candles, quite exciting! We had to swim quite a lot, often holding the candle above your head with one hand and swimming with the other. We were climbing up ladders and ropes hanging over waterfalls and then you reach the point after which you head back out where you can climb up the side of the caves about 3m high and jump into a pool below. Needless to say I was not so keen for this but Haz was the first one up there! He then played a cruel trick by floating slowly to the surface face down... Not funny! After heading back out of the caves we walked to Semuc Champey where there are these amazing natural pools formed that are bright blue and kind of look like the pink terraces as the pools go down all different levels (google Semuc Champey to see pictures, it’s hard to explain!).

Since then we have made our way back down south to the beautiful colonial town of Antigua, 45mins from Guatemala City. We are here for one week and I am so glad! It is just stunning, surrounded by volcanoes that are really close; it has a huge market and dozens of beautiful churches and ruins. We are going to do some shopping at the market and take a tour round a coffee farm and coffee museum next week before heading back to Nicaragua. We have our own private room for $5 a night for both of us and we are eating pancakes, granola and fresh fruit for breakfast every morning! We can get chicken burgers for dinner for about $1.20 for dinner or cook our own pasta with sauce and avocados for two for about 80c for both of us!

We really love this city and would love to come back here, you can rent apartments super cheap as well and so if you’re thinking of traveling, we recommend Antigua! We have been away for 6 weeks now and have another 5 weeks to go, over half way through the trip! Please leave comments to let us know how you all are (if anyone is reading this now that you’re all on your own holidays!)

Ruby & Harry :)

¡Feliz año nuevo de Guatemala!

I believe our last update was about our time in León around Christmas etc and now I am writing from Guatemala! It is currently 6 o’clock on New Years Eve and there are fireworks going off outside that sound more like bombs, they are so intense and they echo throughout the narrow streets setting off dozens of car alarms within a few blocks... These things could cause serious hearing loss!

We planned to take the 20 hour journey to Guatemala in a nice bus with air con and TV’s etc but after the guy from our hostel messed up the booking, we were told we had to go by CHICKEN BUS...

When we learned this unfortunate news, everybody from the hostel sympathized with us strongly and recounted their horrendous 9 or 10-hour bus rides and how they couldn’t imagine 20 hours... So we psyched ourselves up to leave the next day on what would be quite the trip!

As you may have heard we were pleasantly surprised and the trip was actually amazing! Their were only two other tourists on the bus so we got through the borders really quickly because locals didn’t have to clear immigration, they planned funky Latin music and chatted to us all the way and one guy bought us a hot coffee when we arrived in Guatemala City.

From the city we made our way to San Pedro la laguna, a small hippy town on the side of Lake Atítlan. This area is the heart of the Mayan indigenous culture and each town on the lake (there are a lot of small towns surrounding the lake) has their own Mayan language and in order to understand each other they all speak Spanish, so for most people Spanish is their second language and they speak so clearly and slowly that is simply beautiful to understand compared to the lazy slurs of the Nicaraguans! All the men and women wear indigenous clothing and always have a smile on their faces. They are such nice people!

We have spent the last four days here eating amazing food, kayaking across the lake, jumping of the rocks into the lake to go swimming (well there was no way I was going to jump off any rocks but Haz did) and we climbed to a peak called the Indian’s Nose to watch the sunrise. It was amazing walking up in the dark with beautiful stars and then seeing all of the lake and at least 5 volcanoes along the horizon. We also spent a day at the biggest market in Central America in a town called Chichicastenango. It was a 2-hour ride through the mountains on horrendous roads but quite a stunning market filled with colourful locally made things from blankets to hammocks to clothes, food and flowers. We spent a decent amount of money and now we are enjoying lounging round in our new hippie rags so we fit in quite nicely!

We have been traveling with an Austrian girl named Nina since the bus ride to Nicaragua and a Mexican guy named Jose, both of whom left today. It was nice to have some others to share the experiences with! We are here until Monday and then going up to a place called Lanquín to explore amazing caves filled with bats... Until then amigos...

¡Feliz año nuevo a todos nuestros amigos en Nueva Zelanda!

(Happy New Year to all our friends in New Zealand!)