Our bus to Indio left 40 minutes late (I think that is one of the longest delayed departures we've had in the entire trip!), and so we arrived a bit late in Indio where both my Mum and aunt Una were waiting for us. It was great to see my dear 'auld Ma after so long, and so after all the hugs and kisses it was back to Una's gorgeous house in Indian Wells.
I'd been in this house on holiday when I was about 10 years old, but it was uncanny how much I remembered and in how much detail. Anyway my Ma had asked that I cook a Thai dinner for all the girls, so after relaxing for a bit I got stuck into it. It was a bit of a disaster though, as I had to use slightly unfamiliar vegetables and the curry paste was new to me (and I was way too overcautious in using it 'cos the ladies don't like overly spicy food) - ah well, it was all eaten anyway.
After dinner and catching up a bit Una dropped us back to the fabulous Indian Wells Resort Hotel, as there wasn't really room for us in Una's house. The hotel is literally only around the corner (amazing really, given the spread-out nature of American developments), and it was all very plush, comfortable and 5-starry.
The next day, Christmas Eve, we popped around to Una's for lunch and dinner with my Ma (Una and Eithne were out for a traditional Christmas Eve dinner with an old friend). We had a great big Irish fry for dinner, which was great for me and Sarah after so long.
So on Christmas Day, again after our daily hotel breakfast followed by a swim in the huge hotel pool and roasting hot jacuzzi, we again strolled around to Una's. After all the opening of Christmas presents (where both myself and Sarah were spoilt rotten), we relaxed as the girls prepared the dinner. About 5pm Una's great friend Virginia arrived to join us all for the meal.
Virginia is a fantastic character, with another fantastic accent to rival Jimmy's neighbour Hank in Rosarito, this time from Georgia. She used to be Una's next-door neighbour, but recently moved into a nearby care home, but is totally independent and very vivacious - a great example to us all at a sprightly 85 years old. So we had a great time chatting over a huge, perfectly prepared Christmas dinner, and somehow I even had space for some trifle and Eithne's specialty chrimbo-pud!
The next day myself and Sarah just relaxed in the hotel for the morning and afternoon, and headed around to Una's again for dinner, this time having my Ma's gorgeous traditional (for me anyway) turkey soup for starters. After dinner I had a bit of an ordeal getting our photos transferred to DVD's for my Ma to take home (the battery on the camera is dead and I couldn't find a power adapter to recharge it anywhere - nor would any of the hotels in Las Vegas give us one, until eventually I found one on the very new and snazzy Virgin America Airbus flight to San Francisco!).
Next morning, again after the usual leisurely breakfast, swim and jacuzzi, we strolled around to Una's for the last time for a spot of lunch before Una dropped us back to the Greyhound station for our bus to Las Vegas. We both had a fantastic time in Indian Wells - the luxury of the hotel was a really huge treat, the genuinely cosy homeliness of Una's house wonderfully decked out with decorations, and having my Ma and aunts prepare such fantastic meals from home really made this Christmas very memorable.
It was a bit strange to be packing up our rucksacks and hitting the road again after being taken care of for so long, firstly by Jimmy and his family, and then my Mother and aunts. All the usual little niggly fears and anxieties about heading out into the big unknown reappeared but the big consolation this time (along with the ever-present consolation of 'adventure' of course), was that we were headed for Vegas baby!
Friday, December 26, 2008
In the USA at last
The drive to the US border was very quick and easy, and in fact Jimmy, being a long-term US resident, managed to get through in about 15 minutes, since he has a Sentri pass that allows pretty much automatic passage. We, on the other hand, had to queue up with the Mexicans to go through proper immigration. This turned out to involve waiting in line for about 2.5 hours. Luckily the weather was great (there had been a lot of heavy rain recently), and eventually we managed to get through, where poor Jimmy was patiently waiting for us on the other side.
Once through the border we flew up the American highways back to Jimmy's home in Huntington beach, where his family very kindly put up with us for the next 3 days. Jimmy works in construction, specialising in remodelling, the new buzzword in Southern California at the moment it seems, and he'd finished adding a whole new story to their house about a year ago. He did an amazing job, and the house really is a great example of the 'American Dream'. So it was here we met the whole family, Jimmy's wife Pat, and the three kids, Colin, Sean and Brenna.
Jimmy and Pat seem to be something of a focal point for much of the local community, and on our very first evening we were taken along to two Christmas parties at the neighbours. The following evening we were taken to a third, and all three houses had been recently remodeled and all were fabulous (including one house with an amazing 'data room' that controlled all the CAT-5 wiring). Of course we got to meet lots and lots of people, and naturally we had we relate our 19-month travel odyssey repeatedly, but it was all great fun and gave me a great insight into local American culture (interestingly America has been the only place where people asked if I was 'independently wealthy' to be able to travel so long - answer, 'No, it just a lot cheaper than everyone imagines').
One of the days Jimmy took us up to Newport Beach, a district famous for it's concentration of celebrities over the years, and we did a 45-minute harbour cruise seeing all the amazing houses and moored yachts, many decked out in extravagant Christmas lighting. Another day we accompanied Jimmy and Pat for a bit of Christmas shopping - all of which seemed ridiculously easy and hassle-free, with no crowds or queues of people, not even any traffic to talk about - literally an entire world away from Grafton Street in Dublin!
We even got to go to Church with the whole Parker family, which was interesting. Although it was a Catholic mass, it differed from home in a few small ways, with both myself and Sarah just a tad uncomfortable with all the hand-holding and clapping along to the songs...
On our last night Jimmy and Pat took us out to one of their favorite restaurants, Thai Dishes. Brenna, Sean and a friend of Sean's came out with us, so we got to order and share lots of different dishes. I reckoned this was probably the best Thai meal I've had outside Thailand, and luckily it gave me a chance to repay some of Pat and Jimmy's great kindness to us over our stay in Mexico and California (although of course given Jimmy's nature and generosity I had to be a tad sneaky about it!).
Next morning Jimmy drove us up to the Greyhound station in Long Beach, and next thing we know we're on a bus up to Indio to catch up with my Mum who is over with her sister Eithne to visit my other Aunt, Una, who lives in Indian Wells.
Once through the border we flew up the American highways back to Jimmy's home in Huntington beach, where his family very kindly put up with us for the next 3 days. Jimmy works in construction, specialising in remodelling, the new buzzword in Southern California at the moment it seems, and he'd finished adding a whole new story to their house about a year ago. He did an amazing job, and the house really is a great example of the 'American Dream'. So it was here we met the whole family, Jimmy's wife Pat, and the three kids, Colin, Sean and Brenna.
Jimmy and Pat seem to be something of a focal point for much of the local community, and on our very first evening we were taken along to two Christmas parties at the neighbours. The following evening we were taken to a third, and all three houses had been recently remodeled and all were fabulous (including one house with an amazing 'data room' that controlled all the CAT-5 wiring). Of course we got to meet lots and lots of people, and naturally we had we relate our 19-month travel odyssey repeatedly, but it was all great fun and gave me a great insight into local American culture (interestingly America has been the only place where people asked if I was 'independently wealthy' to be able to travel so long - answer, 'No, it just a lot cheaper than everyone imagines').
One of the days Jimmy took us up to Newport Beach, a district famous for it's concentration of celebrities over the years, and we did a 45-minute harbour cruise seeing all the amazing houses and moored yachts, many decked out in extravagant Christmas lighting. Another day we accompanied Jimmy and Pat for a bit of Christmas shopping - all of which seemed ridiculously easy and hassle-free, with no crowds or queues of people, not even any traffic to talk about - literally an entire world away from Grafton Street in Dublin!
We even got to go to Church with the whole Parker family, which was interesting. Although it was a Catholic mass, it differed from home in a few small ways, with both myself and Sarah just a tad uncomfortable with all the hand-holding and clapping along to the songs...
On our last night Jimmy and Pat took us out to one of their favorite restaurants, Thai Dishes. Brenna, Sean and a friend of Sean's came out with us, so we got to order and share lots of different dishes. I reckoned this was probably the best Thai meal I've had outside Thailand, and luckily it gave me a chance to repay some of Pat and Jimmy's great kindness to us over our stay in Mexico and California (although of course given Jimmy's nature and generosity I had to be a tad sneaky about it!).
Next morning Jimmy drove us up to the Greyhound station in Long Beach, and next thing we know we're on a bus up to Indio to catch up with my Mum who is over with her sister Eithne to visit my other Aunt, Una, who lives in Indian Wells.
Last days in Mexico
Our flight to Tijuana arrived at about 10:30pm, but thankfully Sarah's cousin Jimmy had driven down from California to pick us up. Sarah was a tad nervous she might not recognise him, since they haven't seen each other for about 25 years or so. But seeing as how we were the only even vaguely Gringo-looking backpackers, and Jimmy looks like an uncanny mix of Sarah's brother and father, we didn't have any problems finding each other.
So Jimmy took us out for a quick bite to eat in a local Mexican place (just about everywhere was closed at this time of night), before dropping us back to his holiday home in Rosarito, a town about 30 minutes South from Tijuana airport. We spent two nights there with Jimmy, meeting his resident neighbours Hank and Nancy (both retired and fabulously friendly and welcoming, especially with Hank's infectious Boston accent). We also had the honour of meeting the crazy, zany Brandy.
Our only full day in Rosarito Jimmy drove us into the small town where he had a small bit of business to attend to while I got my hair cut, and then after a quick stroll through the depressingly quite local market (Mexican drug-wars are generating a lot of very bad press in the States at the moment, so tourists are few and far between), we drove down along the dramatic coastline and into Mexican wine country. We had two wine tastings, both in vineyards that were every bit as plush and modern as the vineyards we've visited in South Africa, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Later that night was our last authentic Mexican dinner with all Jimmy's Rosarito mates before Hank drove us all home.
The following day was a lazy start, and after a very quick dip in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean just outside Jimmy's beach house we headed up towards the US border (after Jimmy had to pay a wee bribe to a Mexican motorcycle cop who'd caught him driving up a closed-off road to try and skip the huge queue of cars heading for the border post - d'oh!).
So Jimmy took us out for a quick bite to eat in a local Mexican place (just about everywhere was closed at this time of night), before dropping us back to his holiday home in Rosarito, a town about 30 minutes South from Tijuana airport. We spent two nights there with Jimmy, meeting his resident neighbours Hank and Nancy (both retired and fabulously friendly and welcoming, especially with Hank's infectious Boston accent). We also had the honour of meeting the crazy, zany Brandy.
Our only full day in Rosarito Jimmy drove us into the small town where he had a small bit of business to attend to while I got my hair cut, and then after a quick stroll through the depressingly quite local market (Mexican drug-wars are generating a lot of very bad press in the States at the moment, so tourists are few and far between), we drove down along the dramatic coastline and into Mexican wine country. We had two wine tastings, both in vineyards that were every bit as plush and modern as the vineyards we've visited in South Africa, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Later that night was our last authentic Mexican dinner with all Jimmy's Rosarito mates before Hank drove us all home.
The following day was a lazy start, and after a very quick dip in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean just outside Jimmy's beach house we headed up towards the US border (after Jimmy had to pay a wee bribe to a Mexican motorcycle cop who'd caught him driving up a closed-off road to try and skip the huge queue of cars heading for the border post - d'oh!).
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Mexico City
I remember studying Mexico City in geography class in school, and my memories of it from then are all pretty negative - a massive, sprawling city choked by thick pollution, with maddening crowds and dangerous muggers everywhere. By now of course, with all my traveling, I know to pay little or no heed to such generalisations, and I'm delighted I did.
Our one day sojourn to Mexico City was probably one of my favorite 'days out' of the whole trip so far. We did have to walk a far bit in the morning to catch a bus to the main terminal (because buses aren't allowed in the city centre), but once there we caught a bus direct to Mexico City straight away. It arrived on time too, passing very impressive volcanoes on the way.
At the Mexico City bus terminal it was really easy to hop on the metro and go straight to the main plaza, one of the biggest in the world apparently. From there we strolled about the centre, checking out various free or cheap museums (seeing as how we only had one day there was no point paying for the big, expensive museums). We also checked out some really great cafes, restaurants and bars of course, the best certainly being Sanborns headquarters (the tile house), La Opera Bar, and where we had a great dinner Cafe Tacuba (although the waitress got quite snotty with Sarah 'cos she felt her tip wasn't enough, but she'd been snooty all along, so good luck to her...!).
Towards the end of the day we got another metro up to the most famous religious shrine in Mexico, the Basilica of Guadalupe. This is famous for a shroud that apparently had an image of the virgin Mary (or a local version) just miraculously appear one day. It was all pretty miraculous alright, although the most miraculous thing is that literally millions of Catholics come here every year to see, and take photos, of this shroud.
I was expected something vaguely authentic looking, something a bit like the Shroud of Turin (which most people with a working brain now accept as a fake), but in fact the image is a nice colourful affair looking exactly as if some local artist had painted in on a cloak.
But the new basilica itself (the old one is being restored), is mighty impressive architecturally - especially the Star Trek teleporter system hanging from the ceiling!
So hopping back on the metro and back to the centre, we relaxed in a couple of the cool bars again (including the 4th story terrace of the Gran Hotel, which has a really fantastic foyer and nice views of the plaza). Then it was back to the bus terminal, and after a bit of a frenzy finding our way around we hopped on a bus back to Puebla (waiting time about 1 minute).
We got back to Puebla just after 23:00, so there were no local buses. Luckily though they have the fixed-price taxi system here, so we just got our taxi ticket in the terminal and hopped in a taxi straight back to the hostel.
Next day was a leisurely start with a quick delicious taco from Taco Tony's down the road, before using the free internet service in the tourist office for a few hours sorting out various California travel issues. Then yet another gorgeous dinner in the small, cosy La Gardenia restaurant (trying the local speciality of Chile en Noganda) before more internet (writing this), and then busing it to the airport for our flight to Tijuana.
Puebla
Long distance bus prices in Mexico are high, so I was expecting a top-notch bus for our overnight trip from Palenque to Puebla. It turned out to be just a fairly ordinary affair without the service of Argentinian buses (dinner, sparkling wine and bingo!), or the only-three-seats-across-each-row buses of Brazil, but I'm well used to long bus journeys now, so it was a grand journey in the end and I managed a fair bit of sleep.
We arrived at Puebla in the early morning, at the huge, very clean and modern bus terminal. We hopped on a local bus towards the centre, and luckily had a couple of friendly locals telling us where to get off. Apparently the city has major traffic problems, so buses don't go into the very centre of the city, meaning I had to stroll a bit to get my bearings. Then it was a bit more strolling to the recommended hostels, with Sarah doing her usual door-to-door price checking.
The Hotel Cathedral was the best option, again not mentioned in the guidebook, but right beside places that are. We got a room with very high ceilings and fantastic cornicing but only partition walls, and after a couple of hours sleep (any more would just screw up our mental 24-hour clocks), it was time to explore a bit.
The city really is beautiful, with the usual main plaza surrounded by porticoed cafes and shops, and of course the obligatory huge cathedral. The following day was proper exploration, taking in a few of the museums and churches (one having a cool, undecomposed body of a monk that was pretty stunning really), although Sarah had a dicky tummy and went back to the hostel early.
Seeing as how we'd managed to travel all the way up through Central America so easily and quickly we had a full day spare in Puebla before flying up to Tijuana, so early the next morning we decided to hop on a bus for the 2 hour bus trip to Mexico City.
We arrived at Puebla in the early morning, at the huge, very clean and modern bus terminal. We hopped on a local bus towards the centre, and luckily had a couple of friendly locals telling us where to get off. Apparently the city has major traffic problems, so buses don't go into the very centre of the city, meaning I had to stroll a bit to get my bearings. Then it was a bit more strolling to the recommended hostels, with Sarah doing her usual door-to-door price checking.
The Hotel Cathedral was the best option, again not mentioned in the guidebook, but right beside places that are. We got a room with very high ceilings and fantastic cornicing but only partition walls, and after a couple of hours sleep (any more would just screw up our mental 24-hour clocks), it was time to explore a bit.
The city really is beautiful, with the usual main plaza surrounded by porticoed cafes and shops, and of course the obligatory huge cathedral. The following day was proper exploration, taking in a few of the museums and churches (one having a cool, undecomposed body of a monk that was pretty stunning really), although Sarah had a dicky tummy and went back to the hostel early.
Seeing as how we'd managed to travel all the way up through Central America so easily and quickly we had a full day spare in Puebla before flying up to Tijuana, so early the next morning we decided to hop on a bus for the 2 hour bus trip to Mexico City.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Palenque, Mayan ruins number three
Our first night in Palenque we arranged to meet Sarah for dinner in a local restaurant called Las Tinajas, and spent the late afternoon sorting out money and having a drink on the main plaza (which at dusk was invaded by thousands of squawking birds).
The meal in Las Tinajas was probably the best Mexican meal I've ever tasted, and the salsa sauce was one of the tastiest and hottest I've ever tried too. We all ordered local Mexican stuff, and it was all gorgeous.
Next morning, not too early, we got a minibus from just outside our hostel to the ruins of Palenque, only 8kms away. We paid the cheap entrance fee (the cheapest by far of all the Mayan ruins we've visited), and strolled about the site. Again all extremely impressive, and quite different from both Copan and Tikal. The setting here is fantastic, set in dense jungle, and this time we got great views of the resident howler monkeys. The sound these monkeys make really is incredible - I reckon it sounds exactly like nasty zombies in a horror movie or something, all very eerie and not a little disconcerting, and all extremely loud! (In fact, according to Wikipedia '...they are considered the loudest land animal. According to Guinness Book of World Records, it can be heard clearly for 3 miles.')
The weather was back to being spectacular again, and luckily this site isn't so large or spread out. So we took long leisurely rest stops atop temples and palaces, and just took our time ambling about (and eating our packed sandwiches from the top of the Temple of the Cross, the highest structure there, looking out over the ruins and the dense jungle all around us). One small criticism I would have about Palenque though is the number of hawkers allowed to push their wares inside the site itself (at the other Mayan sites the hawkers are all kept outside the gates). They were all over the place, all selling the same stuff, and it seemed a bit of a desecration of the ancient sacred site.
Anyway, on our way out of the ruins we visited the museum. Everything here was impressive, some of it extremely so, but the highlight by far for me was the amazingly huge and intricately carved stone sarcophagus of one of the greatest Maya rulers. It was beautifully presented I must say and certainly the single most impressive artifact of all the sites we visited.
Later that night we meet up with Sarah again, and a Turkish guy who was also on our trip from Tikal, and went for dinner in another guidebook recommended restaurant, La Selva. This time though the food was disappointingly mediocre, so of course the books don't always get it right.
That night we booked our last major bus ride up to the town of Puebla, from where we fly up to Tijuana. The bus was at 7pm though, so the next day we had a nice long lie-in and I spent most of the day using the Internet trying to organise our next major leg of this trip to Asia.
The meal in Las Tinajas was probably the best Mexican meal I've ever tasted, and the salsa sauce was one of the tastiest and hottest I've ever tried too. We all ordered local Mexican stuff, and it was all gorgeous.
Next morning, not too early, we got a minibus from just outside our hostel to the ruins of Palenque, only 8kms away. We paid the cheap entrance fee (the cheapest by far of all the Mayan ruins we've visited), and strolled about the site. Again all extremely impressive, and quite different from both Copan and Tikal. The setting here is fantastic, set in dense jungle, and this time we got great views of the resident howler monkeys. The sound these monkeys make really is incredible - I reckon it sounds exactly like nasty zombies in a horror movie or something, all very eerie and not a little disconcerting, and all extremely loud! (In fact, according to Wikipedia '...they are considered the loudest land animal. According to Guinness Book of World Records, it can be heard clearly for 3 miles.')
The weather was back to being spectacular again, and luckily this site isn't so large or spread out. So we took long leisurely rest stops atop temples and palaces, and just took our time ambling about (and eating our packed sandwiches from the top of the Temple of the Cross, the highest structure there, looking out over the ruins and the dense jungle all around us). One small criticism I would have about Palenque though is the number of hawkers allowed to push their wares inside the site itself (at the other Mayan sites the hawkers are all kept outside the gates). They were all over the place, all selling the same stuff, and it seemed a bit of a desecration of the ancient sacred site.
Anyway, on our way out of the ruins we visited the museum. Everything here was impressive, some of it extremely so, but the highlight by far for me was the amazingly huge and intricately carved stone sarcophagus of one of the greatest Maya rulers. It was beautifully presented I must say and certainly the single most impressive artifact of all the sites we visited.
Later that night we meet up with Sarah again, and a Turkish guy who was also on our trip from Tikal, and went for dinner in another guidebook recommended restaurant, La Selva. This time though the food was disappointingly mediocre, so of course the books don't always get it right.
That night we booked our last major bus ride up to the town of Puebla, from where we fly up to Tijuana. The bus was at 7pm though, so the next day we had a nice long lie-in and I spent most of the day using the Internet trying to organise our next major leg of this trip to Asia.
Getting to Mexico
So the trip into Mexico turned out to be yet another doodle. Our comfortable minibus picked us up on time, and after just a bit of messing about at the tour agency office we heading straight to the border. Booking through an agency does have it's advantages alright, in this case having a direct, non-stop bus journey and a waiting bus on the far side of the border, but I still much prefer getting the local transport in general. It's invariably much less expensive, but also has a lot more character and just feels so much more 'real' when you're the only Westerner on the whole big crowded bus, as opposed to being in a minibus surrounded by German and French backpackers.
Anyway, our bus brought us as far as a river and after about 10 minutes we all boarded a longboat for the very nice 45 minute river trip to the border post itself. It was here that we met Sarah, an Irish teacher on a six month trip around Central and South America.
At the Guatemalan immigration desk the official asked for what I thought was a sizeable fee (in fact it was only a small fee, but I still hadn't gotten used to the currency). I knew this was just them being cheeky, as a few officials at other borders had also asked for fees that other tourists had told me they just refused to pay. The other times though, the fee was very small (only a couple of US dollars each or whatever), so although I knew that they were being cheeky I just paid, as not having proper Spanish makes any discussion pretty much impossible.
This time though I thought the fee was high, and I had no local currency left anyway, and no small denomination US dollars either (and if I paid using a high denomination note they'd screw me by giving me change in local currency at a ridiculous exchange rate). But luckily the other Sarah had very good Spanish. She'd also been in and out of Mexico 3 times already, and so she knew that officially you don't need to pay any fee. Strangely though she seemed prepared to pay this fee, asking the rest of us in the group (6 of us in total) what we thought. I told her pretty clearly that I had no intention of paying a cent, and asked her to simply use her good Spanish to explain that to the official. Without any fuss at all the guy just simply nodded, stamped our passports, gave them back to us and said 'gracias'. It still seems strange to me now that these guys could so casually try to rip people off, but that's travel I guess...
Mexican immigration was quick and painless, and involved no direct fee (we do have to pay an immigration fee at a bank, but we can do that at any time before we leave Mexico). Then it was on another bus direct to the town of Palenque, only about 3 hours away. This minibus did take on local people along the route though, and so was practically the same as the usual public transport, as opposed to a dedicated tour agency bus.
So all-in-all the trip was quick and painless, and we arrived in Palenque nice and early in the afternoon. Sarah traipsed off to find a hostel and again found a great deal in a place not mentioned in the guidebooks (all the other 5 backpackers on our bus paid at least twice what we paid because all of them choose guidebook places - strange...).
Anyway, our bus brought us as far as a river and after about 10 minutes we all boarded a longboat for the very nice 45 minute river trip to the border post itself. It was here that we met Sarah, an Irish teacher on a six month trip around Central and South America.
At the Guatemalan immigration desk the official asked for what I thought was a sizeable fee (in fact it was only a small fee, but I still hadn't gotten used to the currency). I knew this was just them being cheeky, as a few officials at other borders had also asked for fees that other tourists had told me they just refused to pay. The other times though, the fee was very small (only a couple of US dollars each or whatever), so although I knew that they were being cheeky I just paid, as not having proper Spanish makes any discussion pretty much impossible.
This time though I thought the fee was high, and I had no local currency left anyway, and no small denomination US dollars either (and if I paid using a high denomination note they'd screw me by giving me change in local currency at a ridiculous exchange rate). But luckily the other Sarah had very good Spanish. She'd also been in and out of Mexico 3 times already, and so she knew that officially you don't need to pay any fee. Strangely though she seemed prepared to pay this fee, asking the rest of us in the group (6 of us in total) what we thought. I told her pretty clearly that I had no intention of paying a cent, and asked her to simply use her good Spanish to explain that to the official. Without any fuss at all the guy just simply nodded, stamped our passports, gave them back to us and said 'gracias'. It still seems strange to me now that these guys could so casually try to rip people off, but that's travel I guess...
Mexican immigration was quick and painless, and involved no direct fee (we do have to pay an immigration fee at a bank, but we can do that at any time before we leave Mexico). Then it was on another bus direct to the town of Palenque, only about 3 hours away. This minibus did take on local people along the route though, and so was practically the same as the usual public transport, as opposed to a dedicated tour agency bus.
So all-in-all the trip was quick and painless, and we arrived in Palenque nice and early in the afternoon. Sarah traipsed off to find a hostel and again found a great deal in a place not mentioned in the guidebooks (all the other 5 backpackers on our bus paid at least twice what we paid because all of them choose guidebook places - strange...).
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Tikal, Mayan ruins number two
I'd noticed tour agencies in Copan offering bus tickets direct to Tikal in Guatemala for $40US each, which would certainly have been convenient, but I reckoned just getting local public transport would work out much cheaper. Indeed it did, only costing us about $16US each, and the whole thing was yet again really easy (anyone reading this back home has to realise of course that saving $24US so easily is a fairly big deal when your daily budget is only about $25US).
6am in the morning we caught the local bus to the border, and had no queues or bother at immigration. Sarah had to change money with a moneychanger guy though as there was no bank or ATM, but it wasn't too painful and soon we were on our way up towards the town of Santa Elena, the main staging post for getting to the Maya site of Tikal.
We knew we had to change buses at Chiquimala, but luckily the minibus conductor guy was really friendly and led us through the streets and local markets to the connecting bus company (he even insisted on carrying my rucksack for me). It turned out he was really after his small commission from the other bus company, but at least he didn't try to hit us for a tip, and without his help we would have had a real problem finding the right place.
Our connecting bus was leaving in 30 minutes, so I had plenty of time to get to an ATM and get some Guatemalan money. On the way I saw the sickest looking dog I've ever seen - incredible to realise it was still alive. I've seen some sorry looking dogs before in Asia, but this poor guy really was heart-wrenching (and I'm sure I'll see a lot more, even worse cases once I get to India). Anyway, our bus left spot on time and arrived in Santa Elena on time too. The bus actually left us a wee bit outside the town, but a cheap minibus was waiting to ferry passengers (only us as it happened) into the town.
After a bit of debating as to where to go, we got the minibus to leave us at a cheap place outside the main tourist area of Flores (as it was closer to the bus terminals). The cheap place recommended in the book wasn't so cheap - it's a very common problem with the guidebooks, but you just use them as a guide, and nearly always find a much cheaper place very nearby. That's exactly what we did again here, and so settled into the Hotel Alonso.
The hotel booked our bus transfer to the ruins for the next morning. After having so few other tourists at Copan, I reckoned there was a good chance Tikal would be kinda quite too, and so I didn't book a mad early bus (they start at 4am!), booking the 6am bus instead (it's over an hour bus ride to the ruins).
Again the ruins here at Tikal are incredible - really something only personal experience can do justice. The weather this time was very overcast, but in fact it kept the temperature at a nice comfortable level, which was convenient given the large amount of walking we had to do to see the entire site, as it's all very spread out.
Again we did our usual of eating breakfast and lunch atop a mad temple, and again the ruins were amazingly quiet, although there were a few more people milling about than at Copan.
Back in Santa Elena we sorted out a bus to Mexico, and this time I did decide to get a tour agency bus. In this case the price didn't seem so exorbitant and according to our guidebooks the border crossing into Mexico is much more awkward, as it involves a river crossing. It also meant not having to worry about moneychangers and negotiating prices in an unfamiliar currency with bus drivers and boatmen. So with that bus ticket sorted out I could relax, and we strolled across the causeway from Santa Elena to the lovely island of Flores.
Here we strolled about along the waterfronts, had a drink in a nice waterfront bar at sunset before trying a Japanese restaurant for a change. It turned out to be a great choice as the food was delicious and the view over the full-moon illuminated lake was top-notch. It was then a nice leisurely stroll back to our hotel and yet another crazy early start the next morning for the bus journey across into Mexico.
6am in the morning we caught the local bus to the border, and had no queues or bother at immigration. Sarah had to change money with a moneychanger guy though as there was no bank or ATM, but it wasn't too painful and soon we were on our way up towards the town of Santa Elena, the main staging post for getting to the Maya site of Tikal.
We knew we had to change buses at Chiquimala, but luckily the minibus conductor guy was really friendly and led us through the streets and local markets to the connecting bus company (he even insisted on carrying my rucksack for me). It turned out he was really after his small commission from the other bus company, but at least he didn't try to hit us for a tip, and without his help we would have had a real problem finding the right place.
Our connecting bus was leaving in 30 minutes, so I had plenty of time to get to an ATM and get some Guatemalan money. On the way I saw the sickest looking dog I've ever seen - incredible to realise it was still alive. I've seen some sorry looking dogs before in Asia, but this poor guy really was heart-wrenching (and I'm sure I'll see a lot more, even worse cases once I get to India). Anyway, our bus left spot on time and arrived in Santa Elena on time too. The bus actually left us a wee bit outside the town, but a cheap minibus was waiting to ferry passengers (only us as it happened) into the town.
After a bit of debating as to where to go, we got the minibus to leave us at a cheap place outside the main tourist area of Flores (as it was closer to the bus terminals). The cheap place recommended in the book wasn't so cheap - it's a very common problem with the guidebooks, but you just use them as a guide, and nearly always find a much cheaper place very nearby. That's exactly what we did again here, and so settled into the Hotel Alonso.
The hotel booked our bus transfer to the ruins for the next morning. After having so few other tourists at Copan, I reckoned there was a good chance Tikal would be kinda quite too, and so I didn't book a mad early bus (they start at 4am!), booking the 6am bus instead (it's over an hour bus ride to the ruins).
Again the ruins here at Tikal are incredible - really something only personal experience can do justice. The weather this time was very overcast, but in fact it kept the temperature at a nice comfortable level, which was convenient given the large amount of walking we had to do to see the entire site, as it's all very spread out.
Again we did our usual of eating breakfast and lunch atop a mad temple, and again the ruins were amazingly quiet, although there were a few more people milling about than at Copan.
Back in Santa Elena we sorted out a bus to Mexico, and this time I did decide to get a tour agency bus. In this case the price didn't seem so exorbitant and according to our guidebooks the border crossing into Mexico is much more awkward, as it involves a river crossing. It also meant not having to worry about moneychangers and negotiating prices in an unfamiliar currency with bus drivers and boatmen. So with that bus ticket sorted out I could relax, and we strolled across the causeway from Santa Elena to the lovely island of Flores.
Here we strolled about along the waterfronts, had a drink in a nice waterfront bar at sunset before trying a Japanese restaurant for a change. It turned out to be a great choice as the food was delicious and the view over the full-moon illuminated lake was top-notch. It was then a nice leisurely stroll back to our hotel and yet another crazy early start the next morning for the bus journey across into Mexico.
Copan, our first Mayan ruins
The ferry left Utila spot on time (06:20), and after another super-smooth crossing we arrived back on the mainland. Two local bus rides later and we arrived at the bus terminal literally as a bus to San Pedro was pulling out.
At San Pedro we were met by a bus company representative to escort us across and through the massive new bus terminal to where our connecting bus to Copan would be leaving. It was here that we met up with Erin, an Ozzie girl travelling the same way as us for a bit, and so we had some lunch and a chat with her while waiting for the bus to depart.
The journey to Copan was again very comfy and straightforward and we arrived just before dark. We got a fantastic price for a couple of nights in a nice posada and then headed out for dinner. The small town is really lovely I think, and we had a fantastic meal in the lovely Carnitas Nia Lola restaurant (with waitresses balancing wine bottles and food on their heads). It was so good we went back the next night too with Erin, but of course it didn't seem as great then.
So the next morning it was another early start to stroll the nice 1km walk from the town to the famous Maya ruins of Copan. It seemed we were the first tourists to arrive and I was anxious to get through the ticket desk and into the site before the hordes arrived. But in fact we only saw maybe 20 or 30 people on the entire site for the entire day we were there - and half of those were gardeners or guides!
The site really is amazing and well deserves the hype it gets. There's no point in me trying to describe it really, it's all here.
I had deliberately waited to have breakfast at the ruins themselves, and as soon as we arrived at the Grand Plaza, the focal centre of the ruins, we scaled up the really cool temple that's smack-bang in the centre (after checking first if it was OK with a guard). So there we are in the middle of the Maya Grand Plaza of Copan, sitting on the top of the cool pyramidal temple without a single other tourist in sight just casually having our breakfast, when a flock of 4 gorgeous scarlet macaws fly straight past us in close formation - a truly spectacular sight to see anywhere, but all the better for the setting we were in of course.
We spent the entire day just strolling about and climbing the various ruins, many of which are in fantastic condition. Having the place almost completely to ourselves was a real treat, and of course the weather was just perfect too. The huge museum at the site was very impressive too, especially the reconstruction of one of the ancient temples that is actually buried inside a more recent temple.
Later in the day I strolled up to a neighbouring ruin site, and literally had the entire place to myself. Back in the town it was dinner with Erin and another early night, as it was another very early start to get across the border into Guatemala and try to make it up to the even more famous Maya ruins of Tikal.
At San Pedro we were met by a bus company representative to escort us across and through the massive new bus terminal to where our connecting bus to Copan would be leaving. It was here that we met up with Erin, an Ozzie girl travelling the same way as us for a bit, and so we had some lunch and a chat with her while waiting for the bus to depart.
The journey to Copan was again very comfy and straightforward and we arrived just before dark. We got a fantastic price for a couple of nights in a nice posada and then headed out for dinner. The small town is really lovely I think, and we had a fantastic meal in the lovely Carnitas Nia Lola restaurant (with waitresses balancing wine bottles and food on their heads). It was so good we went back the next night too with Erin, but of course it didn't seem as great then.
So the next morning it was another early start to stroll the nice 1km walk from the town to the famous Maya ruins of Copan. It seemed we were the first tourists to arrive and I was anxious to get through the ticket desk and into the site before the hordes arrived. But in fact we only saw maybe 20 or 30 people on the entire site for the entire day we were there - and half of those were gardeners or guides!
The site really is amazing and well deserves the hype it gets. There's no point in me trying to describe it really, it's all here.
I had deliberately waited to have breakfast at the ruins themselves, and as soon as we arrived at the Grand Plaza, the focal centre of the ruins, we scaled up the really cool temple that's smack-bang in the centre (after checking first if it was OK with a guard). So there we are in the middle of the Maya Grand Plaza of Copan, sitting on the top of the cool pyramidal temple without a single other tourist in sight just casually having our breakfast, when a flock of 4 gorgeous scarlet macaws fly straight past us in close formation - a truly spectacular sight to see anywhere, but all the better for the setting we were in of course.
We spent the entire day just strolling about and climbing the various ruins, many of which are in fantastic condition. Having the place almost completely to ourselves was a real treat, and of course the weather was just perfect too. The huge museum at the site was very impressive too, especially the reconstruction of one of the ancient temples that is actually buried inside a more recent temple.
Later in the day I strolled up to a neighbouring ruin site, and literally had the entire place to myself. Back in the town it was dinner with Erin and another early night, as it was another very early start to get across the border into Guatemala and try to make it up to the even more famous Maya ruins of Tikal.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Utila and scuba diving
We arrived on the island of Utila just before dark, and Sarah had her usual task of running around the place scoping out sleeping options. When she got back I then ran around scoping out scuba diving options. The whole point of coming all this way was to take advantage of the world famous diving opportunities here. I knew it was low-season, and that the conditions wouldn't be great, but the Bay Islands are also famous for being one of the cheapest places in the world to get certified as a diver.
So Sarah's christmas present this year is to get qualified as a PADI scuba diver. The tiny town (more a village really) has got 11 diving operations, so I ran about checking out as many as I could as quickly as I could. It quickly became apparent that the various operators here have a price fixing thing going on, as every single place quoted identical prices for scuba courses and for individual dives - every place except one that is. Paradise divers was the only place offering cheaper options, and for some reason they were much cheaper ($229 instead of $271 for a course and $40 for 2 fun dives instead of $59). They also throw in free accommodation and 2 fun dives for doing a training course (most operators offered those freebies too, or slight variations).
So the choice of place to stay, and which scuba operator, was pretty self-evident. Of course I checked out the gear first, and although it certainly wasn't brand new or anything, it all looked in good enough condition and I got a good feeling from chatting to the guys running the place. So Sarah started her 3-day course the very next morning, as we are pretty much restricted in time now having booked a flight to Tijuana for December 18th. I spent the day exploring the town, buying and preparing lunch, strolling to the beaches either end of the town and checking out dive options for me in a bit more detail. It turned out Paradise Divers were the best option for my dives too, and the following morning I went diving with them.
Both my dives were pretty good, although being the rainy low-season the visibility wasn't great (about 10 meters or so). But it was immediately clear that this place must be amazing in good conditions. Both my dives were through fabulously varied coral gardens, and even in the overcast and chilly conditions (they didn't have a full wetsuit in my size, so I had to use a shortie - you get what you pay for I guess!), I could easily appreciate what it must be like in clear conditions. I did add a new entry on my ever growing list of crazy critters though, a mad looking toadfish.
These islands are also famous for spotting whale sharks, but again being off-season there is practically no chance of seeing them now (and I forgot about the free lecture on whale sharks the night before we left - d'oh!). So Sarah finished her course with flying colours, and the following day it was back on the road and catching the 6:20am ferry back to the mainland to make a mad dash for the famous Mayan archaeological site of Copan.
So Sarah's christmas present this year is to get qualified as a PADI scuba diver. The tiny town (more a village really) has got 11 diving operations, so I ran about checking out as many as I could as quickly as I could. It quickly became apparent that the various operators here have a price fixing thing going on, as every single place quoted identical prices for scuba courses and for individual dives - every place except one that is. Paradise divers was the only place offering cheaper options, and for some reason they were much cheaper ($229 instead of $271 for a course and $40 for 2 fun dives instead of $59). They also throw in free accommodation and 2 fun dives for doing a training course (most operators offered those freebies too, or slight variations).
So the choice of place to stay, and which scuba operator, was pretty self-evident. Of course I checked out the gear first, and although it certainly wasn't brand new or anything, it all looked in good enough condition and I got a good feeling from chatting to the guys running the place. So Sarah started her 3-day course the very next morning, as we are pretty much restricted in time now having booked a flight to Tijuana for December 18th. I spent the day exploring the town, buying and preparing lunch, strolling to the beaches either end of the town and checking out dive options for me in a bit more detail. It turned out Paradise Divers were the best option for my dives too, and the following morning I went diving with them.
Both my dives were pretty good, although being the rainy low-season the visibility wasn't great (about 10 meters or so). But it was immediately clear that this place must be amazing in good conditions. Both my dives were through fabulously varied coral gardens, and even in the overcast and chilly conditions (they didn't have a full wetsuit in my size, so I had to use a shortie - you get what you pay for I guess!), I could easily appreciate what it must be like in clear conditions. I did add a new entry on my ever growing list of crazy critters though, a mad looking toadfish.
These islands are also famous for spotting whale sharks, but again being off-season there is practically no chance of seeing them now (and I forgot about the free lecture on whale sharks the night before we left - d'oh!). So Sarah finished her course with flying colours, and the following day it was back on the road and catching the 6:20am ferry back to the mainland to make a mad dash for the famous Mayan archaeological site of Copan.
Honduras
It was an ambitious target to set, but I reckoned if all went well we could just about make it from Granada in Nicaragua to the caribbean coast of Honduras in one long day. Everything started well with an early bus from Granada to the Nicaraguan capital, Managua and then an easy connection to Ocotal near the border, and another connection on a local bus to the border itself.
Immigration was grand as there was only a tiny queue (luckily enough, as each person took ages to be processed, with more exit and entrance fees being charged ($2US and $3US respectively), and handwritten receipts being issued). But it all fell apart once we started travelling through Honduras!
Luckily enough we found a really helpful immigration official who spoke great English, and he explained that the only direct bus from the border that travelled any large distance wasn't due until 2pm that afternoon. Instead we'd have to get a series of 3 local buses to make it to the Honduran capital, from where we could get connections to the north coast.
We had to wait about 45 minutes for the first bus to depart the border (only travelling 12 kms), then we got an immediate connection on another bus the next 20 kms, before having to wait about an hour for the third connection to the capital (which gave us plenty of time for lunch). Once there though the trouble really began - fustratingly the various bus companys all have their own terminals, they tend to be scattered all over the place and they also appear to move location (as our guidebooks got their locations consistently wrong). It also means when you arrive at one company's terminal and want to get a connection with another company you have to get a taxi to the second terminal.
As always the taxi drivers are guaranteed to try and rip you off, and since the bus terminals had moved from the locations mentioned in our books, we had no idea how far the taxi ride would be and therefore no idea what a fair taxi price should be. Anyway, the first taxi brought us out to a connecting company´s terminal, but due to the earlier delays we had missed the onward bus by about 30 minutes. That would have meant another taxi to a different company to try a bus to a different place along our intended route, but they were all quoting crazy prices (probably knowing we had no idea where we were), but luckily Sarah managed to find out that a local bus would take us there more or less directly to where we wanted to go.
So getting the local bus (literally one-twentieth the cheapest price quoted by the taxi drivers!) we arranged to get a bus to San Pedro Sula, as close to the coast as we could get that night. It gave us time to order a Chinese for dinner, but we had to take it away as they took so long to prepare it. We only ordered one meal between us (portion sizes this whole trip have been huge, and so we now routinely just order one main course between us, except in the mad fancy places of course!), but this one turned out to be hugest one yet - it literally fed us that night, the next morning and we only finished it for lunch the next day.
Arriving in San Pedro Sula we discovered that the bus company terminal had moved miles outside the city. It was mad late now, and so we were forced to get yet another rip-off taxi. Luckily the hostel recommended in the guidebook turned out to be really nice and the guy there was very helpful the next morning negotiating with taxi drivers on our behalf to get us to yet another bus terminal. We had started very early again in the morning hoping to make it to the coast to catch a 9am ferry to the Bay Islands, our ultimate destination.
As it turned out, even locals and taxi drivers can get totally confused by the whole multiple-bus-company-terminal thing, as the terminal our taxi driver dropped us at was the wrong place. Luckily a guy was just leaving though to go to the correct location, and so he took us with him. Basically we had to walk about 10 minutes, catch a local minibus and get off in the middle of nowhere were in fact the correct bus was waiting for us (without that friendly local guy bringing us with him we would never have made that bus).
As it turned out we arrived in La Ceiba (which is close to the ferry point) a little before 9am but I needed to organise money and use internet banking, and the only ATM in the area didn't work. So resigned to missing the 9am ferry we just got a bus into the city centre (one less taxi thank god), and relaxed for most of the day waiting for the 4pm ferry instead (after being falsely informed by some local guy that there was an 11am ferry, and being told by the official tourist office that no ferries run on the weekend - they actually run every day!).
So we finally arrived on the Bay Island of Utila in the caribbean at 5pm, only half-a-day after our ambitious target. Even though travelling through Honduras was extremely fustrating, looking back even now just a couple of days later it wasn't so bad really.
Immigration was grand as there was only a tiny queue (luckily enough, as each person took ages to be processed, with more exit and entrance fees being charged ($2US and $3US respectively), and handwritten receipts being issued). But it all fell apart once we started travelling through Honduras!
Luckily enough we found a really helpful immigration official who spoke great English, and he explained that the only direct bus from the border that travelled any large distance wasn't due until 2pm that afternoon. Instead we'd have to get a series of 3 local buses to make it to the Honduran capital, from where we could get connections to the north coast.
We had to wait about 45 minutes for the first bus to depart the border (only travelling 12 kms), then we got an immediate connection on another bus the next 20 kms, before having to wait about an hour for the third connection to the capital (which gave us plenty of time for lunch). Once there though the trouble really began - fustratingly the various bus companys all have their own terminals, they tend to be scattered all over the place and they also appear to move location (as our guidebooks got their locations consistently wrong). It also means when you arrive at one company's terminal and want to get a connection with another company you have to get a taxi to the second terminal.
As always the taxi drivers are guaranteed to try and rip you off, and since the bus terminals had moved from the locations mentioned in our books, we had no idea how far the taxi ride would be and therefore no idea what a fair taxi price should be. Anyway, the first taxi brought us out to a connecting company´s terminal, but due to the earlier delays we had missed the onward bus by about 30 minutes. That would have meant another taxi to a different company to try a bus to a different place along our intended route, but they were all quoting crazy prices (probably knowing we had no idea where we were), but luckily Sarah managed to find out that a local bus would take us there more or less directly to where we wanted to go.
So getting the local bus (literally one-twentieth the cheapest price quoted by the taxi drivers!) we arranged to get a bus to San Pedro Sula, as close to the coast as we could get that night. It gave us time to order a Chinese for dinner, but we had to take it away as they took so long to prepare it. We only ordered one meal between us (portion sizes this whole trip have been huge, and so we now routinely just order one main course between us, except in the mad fancy places of course!), but this one turned out to be hugest one yet - it literally fed us that night, the next morning and we only finished it for lunch the next day.
Arriving in San Pedro Sula we discovered that the bus company terminal had moved miles outside the city. It was mad late now, and so we were forced to get yet another rip-off taxi. Luckily the hostel recommended in the guidebook turned out to be really nice and the guy there was very helpful the next morning negotiating with taxi drivers on our behalf to get us to yet another bus terminal. We had started very early again in the morning hoping to make it to the coast to catch a 9am ferry to the Bay Islands, our ultimate destination.
As it turned out, even locals and taxi drivers can get totally confused by the whole multiple-bus-company-terminal thing, as the terminal our taxi driver dropped us at was the wrong place. Luckily a guy was just leaving though to go to the correct location, and so he took us with him. Basically we had to walk about 10 minutes, catch a local minibus and get off in the middle of nowhere were in fact the correct bus was waiting for us (without that friendly local guy bringing us with him we would never have made that bus).
As it turned out we arrived in La Ceiba (which is close to the ferry point) a little before 9am but I needed to organise money and use internet banking, and the only ATM in the area didn't work. So resigned to missing the 9am ferry we just got a bus into the city centre (one less taxi thank god), and relaxed for most of the day waiting for the 4pm ferry instead (after being falsely informed by some local guy that there was an 11am ferry, and being told by the official tourist office that no ferries run on the weekend - they actually run every day!).
So we finally arrived on the Bay Island of Utila in the caribbean at 5pm, only half-a-day after our ambitious target. Even though travelling through Honduras was extremely fustrating, looking back even now just a couple of days later it wasn't so bad really.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Granada
The town of Granada is another one of Nicaragua's highlights apparently, and indeed it was a lovely town. We only stayed two nights (Hostal Esfinge), but since we arrived early the first day we had time to stroll about and pretty much check out all the local attractions. These are mainly lovely old churches and impressive colonials buildings, with some nice cafes and restaurants too.
The following day we got a local bus out to the National Parque Volcano Masaya, another cluster of volcanoes. The main volcano here is the most active one in all of Central America, and constantly belches out sulphuric clouds (apparently it can emit between 300 and 3000 tonnes of toxic gases every day, making it one of the world's largest naural polluters). It was certainly in a very toxic mood when we arrived, with the entire wide crater emitting a steady stream of burning cloud. We hiked around the neighbouring crater rim too. It doesn't emit any stream and appears a lot smaller. It makes for fantasic views though, all very Jurassic Park-looking.
Back in the town we strolled about some more and splashed out on dinner in the very fancy El Zaguan, having a gorgeous steak and the local vigoron (the vigoron we'd had the night before on the central square was both cheaper and nicer though!).
Next morning another very early start to try and get through the border and into Honduras...
The following day we got a local bus out to the National Parque Volcano Masaya, another cluster of volcanoes. The main volcano here is the most active one in all of Central America, and constantly belches out sulphuric clouds (apparently it can emit between 300 and 3000 tonnes of toxic gases every day, making it one of the world's largest naural polluters). It was certainly in a very toxic mood when we arrived, with the entire wide crater emitting a steady stream of burning cloud. We hiked around the neighbouring crater rim too. It doesn't emit any stream and appears a lot smaller. It makes for fantasic views though, all very Jurassic Park-looking.
Back in the town we strolled about some more and splashed out on dinner in the very fancy El Zaguan, having a gorgeous steak and the local vigoron (the vigoron we'd had the night before on the central square was both cheaper and nicer though!).
Next morning another very early start to try and get through the border and into Honduras...
Nicaragua and the volcanic islands
Having gotten through immigration so quickly we hopped on a local bus to the town of Rivas (again our lack of Spanish again causing some fustration, but in fact it has never resulted in anything bad happening, things always work out quite quickly). The bus station here was all a bit mad, dirty and hectic but we were on our way again within 20 minutes.
As Nicaragua is one of the cheapest countries in Central America I decided to check out a couple of the countries highlights - first up was the
Isla de Ometepe. This island is formed from two conjoined volcanoes sticking straight up from the fresh lake of Lake Nicaragua (it`s the biggest fresh water island in the world). So once at Rivas we needed to get a taxi to the ferry port in San Jorge in order to get the boat across to the island. We had a bit of time to kill waiting for the ferry, so we relaxed on the shores of the lake and some lunch looked out at the incredibly perfect cone of the bigger of the two volcanoes.
The one hour boat ride gave us fantastic views of the volcanoes as there wasn't much cloud, and the main volcano really is an impressive sight, being prefectly conical. The boat brought us directly to the main town on the island, and I decided to stay here rather than move to another part of the island (the guidebooks recommend other places as being nicer, but we were only staying for a couple of nights so I didn´t fancy the hassle of moving about). I thought the little town was quite nice anyway, and our hostel was friendly and cheery, being basically just a family home with just thin curtains for some of the main walls!
The next day we rented bikes and waited for the bus to take us and our bikes to the far side of the island and just cycle back (the bus was later than we´d been told, another example of locals not having much of a clue about their own buses or boats - it´s just another fustrating trait that has emerges while travelling, but more so it seems in Central America (while I´m on the topic, another annoyance is the total lack of street signs in some places, even major cities. Apparently lots of these places have no postal service, and so no need for addresses. So locals give directions in relation to well-known local landmarks, which is useless to tourists of course, and they have often never seen a map of their own town so they can´t even tell you where you are currently standing!).
Anyway the bus brought us to the other town and after checking out the local church and it´s pretty cool ancient stone statues in the grounds we rode off back towards the main town. We took a 8km detour to check out some local petroglyphs (more ancient stone carvings, these ones mostly weird shapes and symbols), and what is supposed to be the best beach on the whole island, Playa Santo Domingo.
There was no beach, or at least nothing I'd call a beach (the guidebook calls it amazing!), just a very narrow stretch of black volcanic sand at the base of a lovely hotel (maybe the lake is tidal and the tide was in or something). We had a small lunch and a drink at the fancy hotel and then I changed into my swimming shorts for a lovely swim in the very shallow lake (Sarah wasn't tempted - the weather was overcast all day, and we had drizzly rain most of the time. It was very warm though, so the rain was actually quite nice and refreshing). The lake was perfectly flat and calm, and it was weird lying back and watching tiny fish jump from the water all around me.
Then back on our bikes for the long ride back to the town. Luckily this was on a good road, as the 16km roundtrip detour to the beach and petroglyphs had been on a rough dirt road, and so we getting tired. It was a pity the weather was so overcast, as we never really got good views of the volcanoes, but the landscapes were lovely and the little villages we passed were cool.
Next morning we got the ferry back to the mainland (again being told the wrong time by the family we stayed with), and it was a quick enough jaunt to the colonial town of Granada.
As Nicaragua is one of the cheapest countries in Central America I decided to check out a couple of the countries highlights - first up was the
Isla de Ometepe. This island is formed from two conjoined volcanoes sticking straight up from the fresh lake of Lake Nicaragua (it`s the biggest fresh water island in the world). So once at Rivas we needed to get a taxi to the ferry port in San Jorge in order to get the boat across to the island. We had a bit of time to kill waiting for the ferry, so we relaxed on the shores of the lake and some lunch looked out at the incredibly perfect cone of the bigger of the two volcanoes.The one hour boat ride gave us fantastic views of the volcanoes as there wasn't much cloud, and the main volcano really is an impressive sight, being prefectly conical. The boat brought us directly to the main town on the island, and I decided to stay here rather than move to another part of the island (the guidebooks recommend other places as being nicer, but we were only staying for a couple of nights so I didn´t fancy the hassle of moving about). I thought the little town was quite nice anyway, and our hostel was friendly and cheery, being basically just a family home with just thin curtains for some of the main walls!
The next day we rented bikes and waited for the bus to take us and our bikes to the far side of the island and just cycle back (the bus was later than we´d been told, another example of locals not having much of a clue about their own buses or boats - it´s just another fustrating trait that has emerges while travelling, but more so it seems in Central America (while I´m on the topic, another annoyance is the total lack of street signs in some places, even major cities. Apparently lots of these places have no postal service, and so no need for addresses. So locals give directions in relation to well-known local landmarks, which is useless to tourists of course, and they have often never seen a map of their own town so they can´t even tell you where you are currently standing!).
Anyway the bus brought us to the other town and after checking out the local church and it´s pretty cool ancient stone statues in the grounds we rode off back towards the main town. We took a 8km detour to check out some local petroglyphs (more ancient stone carvings, these ones mostly weird shapes and symbols), and what is supposed to be the best beach on the whole island, Playa Santo Domingo.
There was no beach, or at least nothing I'd call a beach (the guidebook calls it amazing!), just a very narrow stretch of black volcanic sand at the base of a lovely hotel (maybe the lake is tidal and the tide was in or something). We had a small lunch and a drink at the fancy hotel and then I changed into my swimming shorts for a lovely swim in the very shallow lake (Sarah wasn't tempted - the weather was overcast all day, and we had drizzly rain most of the time. It was very warm though, so the rain was actually quite nice and refreshing). The lake was perfectly flat and calm, and it was weird lying back and watching tiny fish jump from the water all around me.
Then back on our bikes for the long ride back to the town. Luckily this was on a good road, as the 16km roundtrip detour to the beach and petroglyphs had been on a rough dirt road, and so we getting tired. It was a pity the weather was so overcast, as we never really got good views of the volcanoes, but the landscapes were lovely and the little villages we passed were cool.
Next morning we got the ferry back to the mainland (again being told the wrong time by the family we stayed with), and it was a quick enough jaunt to the colonial town of Granada.
Costa Rica in a blur
The plan had been to fly through Costa Rica without really stopping, as the guidebooks indicated that it is one of the most expensive Central American countries, and so it just made more sense to spend our time in the cheaper countries.
The first bus trip was easy, although we were lucky not to miss the bus completely. It arrived just as we got to the pick-up point and left immediately, even though we were about 5 minutes early. So getting to David we got an immediate connection straight to the border. Luckily there wasn't much of a queue for Panamian immigration, as the processing for each person seemed to take ages.
On the Costa Rican side there was no queue at all, and we just hopped on a bus to the capital, San Jose, pretty much straight away (after the usual bit of confusion caused by our embarrassing lack of Spanish though).
Once in San Jose it was a fairly straightforward walk to the required bus terminal. We had time for a bite to eat and I used the Internet for a bit, and then we were straight off up to Liberia. This was the first indication though of what became an extremely annoying feature of independent bus travel in this part of the world. Basically there are many different bus companies travelling to various places, and they all have their own bus terminals scattered around the place. In this first case we could easily walk between the terminals, but that certainly didn`t hold later on!
Anyway, we arrived in Liberia fairly late, but it was small enough that we could easily walk from the bus terminal into the town. After the usual checking around, we found a good, clean place to bed down for the night (not in the guidebooks). Liberia looked like a nice, clean modern little city, but the next morning it was another early start to try and get up through the border and into Nicaragua.
The first bus terminal we walked to didn`t have buses to the border (this being the first indication of how fustratingly confusing this whole multiple-bus-terminals thing really is), but the proper terminal was only a few minutes further walk. Once there is was a short enough wait for the bus to the border at Penas Blancas.
Again we were lucky with immigration as the queue moved along very quickly, and after paying our 7 dollar entry fee we were in Nicaragua, having `done` Costa Rica in just a day and a half (it did look very nice and jungley though).
The first bus trip was easy, although we were lucky not to miss the bus completely. It arrived just as we got to the pick-up point and left immediately, even though we were about 5 minutes early. So getting to David we got an immediate connection straight to the border. Luckily there wasn't much of a queue for Panamian immigration, as the processing for each person seemed to take ages.
On the Costa Rican side there was no queue at all, and we just hopped on a bus to the capital, San Jose, pretty much straight away (after the usual bit of confusion caused by our embarrassing lack of Spanish though).
Once in San Jose it was a fairly straightforward walk to the required bus terminal. We had time for a bite to eat and I used the Internet for a bit, and then we were straight off up to Liberia. This was the first indication though of what became an extremely annoying feature of independent bus travel in this part of the world. Basically there are many different bus companies travelling to various places, and they all have their own bus terminals scattered around the place. In this first case we could easily walk between the terminals, but that certainly didn`t hold later on!
Anyway, we arrived in Liberia fairly late, but it was small enough that we could easily walk from the bus terminal into the town. After the usual checking around, we found a good, clean place to bed down for the night (not in the guidebooks). Liberia looked like a nice, clean modern little city, but the next morning it was another early start to try and get up through the border and into Nicaragua.
The first bus terminal we walked to didn`t have buses to the border (this being the first indication of how fustratingly confusing this whole multiple-bus-terminals thing really is), but the proper terminal was only a few minutes further walk. Once there is was a short enough wait for the bus to the border at Penas Blancas.
Again we were lucky with immigration as the queue moved along very quickly, and after paying our 7 dollar entry fee we were in Nicaragua, having `done` Costa Rica in just a day and a half (it did look very nice and jungley though).
Boquete
It turned out to be painless again to get all the way to Boquete, simply involving a stroll back to the mad junction we'd been to the day we went to the canal, a locl bus to the main bus termainl and then another bus to the city of David. From there we just hopped on a connecting bus to Boquete, just 1 hour away.
As usual Sarah ran around checking out the hostel options, and we settled on the cheapest and nicest place of them all. In fact it was such a nice place (Hotel Marilos, only $10 a night), and such a nice town, that I was seriously tempted to stay for a third night, but in the end the weather wasn't great, time was tight and I was anxious to make a fair bit of progress up towards Mexico (as we were hoping to get to California to visit my aunt and see my Ma for Christmas).
So the next day we had the luxury of sleeping in quite late and then strolled the few km's to the animal refuge of Paradise Gardens (Mullin's had stayed in Boquete a few months back and volunteered here for a few weeks). It was a fantastic place, only started 3 or 4 years ago by an English couple who retired here, and they have done an amazing job of landscaping the grounds and erecting enclosures for the various animals. We spent a few hours just being guided around by a lovely chatty, friendly American retiree and then just strolled around on our own amongst the amazing toucans, the baby sloth, the margay, some mad rare cat thing I can't remember the name of, the crazy gang of 7 macaws, the hummingbirds, etc.
After the refuge, Sarah went back to the hostel to relax while I strolled to the other side of town to check out a coffee factory and a neighbouring private garden that's open to the public. The gardens were again really impressively maintained - lots of ponds with carp and more impressive landscaping (and not a single other soul anywhere to be seen, which was nice).
The coffee factory, though, was a bit disappointing. I had wanted to do tour of the coffee planation itself, but that was way too expensive (and much more so than the guidebooks suggested, so I suppose business must be good), but they had a factory tour option that was cheap. When I got there though, the factory was really small, and you could see into the whole operation from big windows in the walls of the adjoining cafe. So I just had a coffee (not even that great to be honest!), and just watched the couple of guys working in the factory.
Like I said, I could have stayed another day or two just relaxing in Boquete (and given the way this trip has moved along at a snails pace so far, if it wasn't for the time constraints I almost certainly would have), but the next morning was an early start to try and blitz up through as much of Costa Rica as possible.
As usual Sarah ran around checking out the hostel options, and we settled on the cheapest and nicest place of them all. In fact it was such a nice place (Hotel Marilos, only $10 a night), and such a nice town, that I was seriously tempted to stay for a third night, but in the end the weather wasn't great, time was tight and I was anxious to make a fair bit of progress up towards Mexico (as we were hoping to get to California to visit my aunt and see my Ma for Christmas).
So the next day we had the luxury of sleeping in quite late and then strolled the few km's to the animal refuge of Paradise Gardens (Mullin's had stayed in Boquete a few months back and volunteered here for a few weeks). It was a fantastic place, only started 3 or 4 years ago by an English couple who retired here, and they have done an amazing job of landscaping the grounds and erecting enclosures for the various animals. We spent a few hours just being guided around by a lovely chatty, friendly American retiree and then just strolled around on our own amongst the amazing toucans, the baby sloth, the margay, some mad rare cat thing I can't remember the name of, the crazy gang of 7 macaws, the hummingbirds, etc.
After the refuge, Sarah went back to the hostel to relax while I strolled to the other side of town to check out a coffee factory and a neighbouring private garden that's open to the public. The gardens were again really impressively maintained - lots of ponds with carp and more impressive landscaping (and not a single other soul anywhere to be seen, which was nice).
The coffee factory, though, was a bit disappointing. I had wanted to do tour of the coffee planation itself, but that was way too expensive (and much more so than the guidebooks suggested, so I suppose business must be good), but they had a factory tour option that was cheap. When I got there though, the factory was really small, and you could see into the whole operation from big windows in the walls of the adjoining cafe. So I just had a coffee (not even that great to be honest!), and just watched the couple of guys working in the factory.
Like I said, I could have stayed another day or two just relaxing in Boquete (and given the way this trip has moved along at a snails pace so far, if it wasn't for the time constraints I almost certainly would have), but the next morning was an early start to try and blitz up through as much of Costa Rica as possible.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Panama
So the flight to Panama City was quick and painless (we even got a small lunch, which was handy as we'd used up all our Colombian money buying the cheapest snacks we could find from a street seller outside the airport in Cartagena).
But there were huge queues for getting through immigration once we arrived, which is always annoying (although amazingly on this trip, after 17 countries, it was the first time we had major queues). In fairness they had a lot of immigation staff, and the passport check itself was very quick, so I think it must have been a case of a lot of aircraft arriving at the same time.
But after that and getting our bags, there was another queue to get through security. When we asked at information for how to get a bus to the centre I really started to get annoyed. The girl there basically refused to tell us, instead telling us, repeatedly, that we must get a taxi as it was now dark and far too dangerous to get the bus. We asked again at another information desk, and were told the same thing, and so I got really annoyed! We had a quick look outside the terminal for the bus stop anyway, but it wasn't obvious, and so in total fustration I finally relented and just got a taxi.
Most taxis here are collectivos, where 4 or more people share a single taxi. So we agreed our price with the driver and got into the people carrier with 3 other people. They were all business men, and 2 of them were clearly confused by the 'collectivo' situation, as one of them thought he was getting a personal taxi, but he stayed put anyway. He paid significantly more than he should have too, so he really got ripped off.
Anyway, we got dropped off at a hostel recommended in the guidebooks, and it turned out to be fine (Hostel Colon). It was in the old part of town, and in it's hayday must have been a beautiful large old building with nice Spanish tiling, but now it's all quite run down really. The whole old town is undergoing extensive renovations as Panama's economy booms (the new town is chock-a-block with massive sktscrapers).
So the next day we got up early to get to the Panama Canal. We strolled to where the guidebook said we could get a bus, a major junction, but it was all mad confusing. Asking a local guy (always a dodgey thing to do), we ended up going to the main bus terminal and having to get a connecting bus. It menat we got delayed, but at least we could checkoutbusoptions for our onward destinationin Panama.
When we arrived at the canal we were just in time to see the last of the morning ships passing through the locks (they pass in the morning from 9am-11am, and then again from 3pm-5pm). So to see the ships passing properly we needed to hang around for the whole afternoon. I didn't mind as the museum and video were both quite good, explaining the history and how the whole system works, and the massive $5billion expansion plans.
When the ships started passing through again we got to see a tanker, a cruise ship (the Rotterdam) and a huge container ship - 3 of the 4 main types of ships (the 4th type being grain ships). For me the most impressive thing was the scale of the ships themselves - the cruise ship was paying $140,000US, $120US for each passenger, just to pass through the canal. But the whole setup is all very impressive too, although strangely quite and relaxed looking. It all seems to operate like any canal lock system (such as those on the Shannon), and seems equally slow but just on a much larger scale. There seemed to be very few people needed to operate the whole thing.
The next day we explored the old town properly. It was all much nicer during the day of course, not as intimidating as when we'd arriving at night. When all the renovation is complete it should be a really nice place (right now it reminded me of Havana with all the lovely old buildings crumbling to pieces). There are already quite a few nice restaurants about, and we had a lovely lunch before heading up to the new town to have a wander. The traffic was terrible though, so we didn't have much time before heading back to the hostel.
As we approached the restaurant we'd been to the night before (the Coca-Cola Cafe, a famous cafeteria place full of colourful locals and good cheap grub), we noticed the main door was closed and a group of people had gathered around looking at something. It turned out that someone had been shot about an hour earlier in a robbery. We could see the body on the ground and the police and ambulance people milling about. It turned out the cafe was open, so we went in another door and just had our dinner, occasionally looking out the window at the scene of the shooting like most of the locals, who seemed to be fairly used to this kind of thing. Then it was around the corner back to our hostel for the night - apparently our neighbourhood is quite dangerous!
Next morning it was time to move on and hopefully get to a place called Boquete towards Costa Rica.
But there were huge queues for getting through immigration once we arrived, which is always annoying (although amazingly on this trip, after 17 countries, it was the first time we had major queues). In fairness they had a lot of immigation staff, and the passport check itself was very quick, so I think it must have been a case of a lot of aircraft arriving at the same time.
But after that and getting our bags, there was another queue to get through security. When we asked at information for how to get a bus to the centre I really started to get annoyed. The girl there basically refused to tell us, instead telling us, repeatedly, that we must get a taxi as it was now dark and far too dangerous to get the bus. We asked again at another information desk, and were told the same thing, and so I got really annoyed! We had a quick look outside the terminal for the bus stop anyway, but it wasn't obvious, and so in total fustration I finally relented and just got a taxi.
Most taxis here are collectivos, where 4 or more people share a single taxi. So we agreed our price with the driver and got into the people carrier with 3 other people. They were all business men, and 2 of them were clearly confused by the 'collectivo' situation, as one of them thought he was getting a personal taxi, but he stayed put anyway. He paid significantly more than he should have too, so he really got ripped off.
Anyway, we got dropped off at a hostel recommended in the guidebooks, and it turned out to be fine (Hostel Colon). It was in the old part of town, and in it's hayday must have been a beautiful large old building with nice Spanish tiling, but now it's all quite run down really. The whole old town is undergoing extensive renovations as Panama's economy booms (the new town is chock-a-block with massive sktscrapers).
So the next day we got up early to get to the Panama Canal. We strolled to where the guidebook said we could get a bus, a major junction, but it was all mad confusing. Asking a local guy (always a dodgey thing to do), we ended up going to the main bus terminal and having to get a connecting bus. It menat we got delayed, but at least we could checkoutbusoptions for our onward destinationin Panama.
When we arrived at the canal we were just in time to see the last of the morning ships passing through the locks (they pass in the morning from 9am-11am, and then again from 3pm-5pm). So to see the ships passing properly we needed to hang around for the whole afternoon. I didn't mind as the museum and video were both quite good, explaining the history and how the whole system works, and the massive $5billion expansion plans.
When the ships started passing through again we got to see a tanker, a cruise ship (the Rotterdam) and a huge container ship - 3 of the 4 main types of ships (the 4th type being grain ships). For me the most impressive thing was the scale of the ships themselves - the cruise ship was paying $140,000US, $120US for each passenger, just to pass through the canal. But the whole setup is all very impressive too, although strangely quite and relaxed looking. It all seems to operate like any canal lock system (such as those on the Shannon), and seems equally slow but just on a much larger scale. There seemed to be very few people needed to operate the whole thing.
The next day we explored the old town properly. It was all much nicer during the day of course, not as intimidating as when we'd arriving at night. When all the renovation is complete it should be a really nice place (right now it reminded me of Havana with all the lovely old buildings crumbling to pieces). There are already quite a few nice restaurants about, and we had a lovely lunch before heading up to the new town to have a wander. The traffic was terrible though, so we didn't have much time before heading back to the hostel.
As we approached the restaurant we'd been to the night before (the Coca-Cola Cafe, a famous cafeteria place full of colourful locals and good cheap grub), we noticed the main door was closed and a group of people had gathered around looking at something. It turned out that someone had been shot about an hour earlier in a robbery. We could see the body on the ground and the police and ambulance people milling about. It turned out the cafe was open, so we went in another door and just had our dinner, occasionally looking out the window at the scene of the shooting like most of the locals, who seemed to be fairly used to this kind of thing. Then it was around the corner back to our hostel for the night - apparently our neighbourhood is quite dangerous!
Next morning it was time to move on and hopefully get to a place called Boquete towards Costa Rica.
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