Flores is a nice small island in northern Guatemala. Most people (maybe all) come to visit Tikal and so were we. We came in the afternoon of the 23rd of December and booked a shuttle to Tikal for the next day.
We found a really cheap street food at the parque central and ate lots of it which later turned out not be a great idea :D
And on the 24th of December -- Tikal! We woke up at 3:45 to catch a shuttle that was picking us up at 4:30. We arrived at Tikal soon after the sunrise and headed straight to the Gran Plaza where the two magnificent temples were. There was a Maya ceremony taking place in the middle of it and we were the only ones there maybe except for a couple of American tourists who were photographing the ceremony like crazy. I think we chose the right day to visit, as we could walk between the ruins without being bothered by big groups of tourists. We had just enough time to see all of the ruins and to be honest, it all started to look the same to me after a couple of hours.
So after about seven hours of walkink around we came to the parking lot to catch a bus at 2pm. Everyone in our van was leaving at 12:30 but I talked with the driver and I was assured that we can leave at 2 because we wanted to have more time. But it wouldnt be Guatemala if everything went on smoothly.
We came to the parking lot in time but no van and no driver showed up. So we started asking random people if they were going to Flores but no one seemed to be able to take us, and if yes, they asked for too much money and we werent able to bargain because everyone knew we were stuck.
There was a little souvenir store with t-shirts that attracted my attention because I buy tshirts as souvenirs (I started the trip with two and by the time I am writing this, I have seven.) And there was this guy who suddenly asked us if we were supposed to leave at two. We nodded and were told that our driver told him to tell us that he was not coming (hope youre still with me). Luckily the guy was going to take us by another van.
So in the end we were ok - but the whole situation was just ridiculous. It was a pure luck that we ran into the guy. You wouldnt guess how he recognized us. It was because both of us were wearing glasses. Guatemalans very rarely wear glasses. In fact, I dont think I have seen anyone in central america to wear glasses except for the doctor in the vision centre in Belize city (i will talk about Belize later).
I found a tshirt that I liked. It was 60Q and I said I pay 30Q. I then bought it for 45Q (about 6 usd) which was the last offer before I was about to leave. Not bad, but i think he could still go lower.
We had quite a lot of time so we went back to the site. Getting there turned out to take more time than we had expected so we just ate a pack of cookies and left.
Tikal was great and I'd definitely recommend it as it is one of the biggest maya cities and was of a great significance. Its just pitty that people are often not allowed to climb the temples. I have to admit I disobeyed acouple of times...
And in the evening was the time to give and get presents! ...except we didnt buy any :D I considered a present that I had my laundry washed. Clean tshirts and underwear at last!
At midnight there was a huuge firework severywhere. People were going out in the streets, hugging each other and celebrating. That was nice. The whole chritmas thing is a bit unusual because of the weather. :)
The next day we reserved for Flores and some sights around. We started by going to Caves in Santa Elena. It was not as good as caves in Semuc Champey but it was ridiculously cheap. It was pretty hot and we walked both ways. In the afternoon we caught a ferry to the other side of the lake and hiked to a lookout point from where there was a nice view of Flores. We also went to a playa (beach) though I didnt swim because my feet have several injuries that I dont want to get infected. I bought some coconut cookie from a street vendor and it tasted really good. In the evening we had a buffet-style dinner which I expected to be really good but if I hadnt asked a guy for more I would have had just one plate because the food was gone pretty fast.
At the end I just wanna make a note that in our hostel I met a guy who took valium and acted quite funny. He also stays in the same hostel at Caye Caulker.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Semuc Champey
After four nights at Lago de Atitlan and surviving the end of the world, we had to part with Hana and Libor who left for Nicaragua. We had our last delicious fruit smoothie (strawberry, blackberry and pineapple and a little bit of sugar) for 5Q and then we took a boat to the village of Panachacel from where we were hoping to get a shuttle to Semuc Champey for a reasonable price.
The boat ride could be sold as a tour by itself. The boat was jumping in the waves and falling down on to them very hard and i could see that the man in front of me didnt like that a bit. The locals new why to sit in the back where the bumps werent so hard.
The shuttle to Semuc Champey turned out to cost $35 which was a lot more than we expected. I didn't want to pay it but we were short on time and this was the best way to get where we wanted, so we took it.
The shuttle took us to Antigua where we had about an hour before continuing to Lanqin (village close to Semuc Champey) so we went to the place with sandwiches. This time they had the gas and we really got them. Mine tasted great!
The van ride to Lanqin followed. It was just us and two girls from Quebec - Jessica and Stephanie, so I finally had a lot of room for me to be comfortable (particularly for my legs). As we were passing through Guatemala City, all the fumes from the traffic were making me sick. I was not the only one, as Stephanie opened the window and was leaning out of it for a while. She seemed to be ok, though.
I was reading the 1984 book by Orwell on my kindle. It is not bad but i expected it to be better, as it it listed among the best books of all time.
Anyway, we arrived in Lanqin at about 9 pm and got accommodated with the girls in a 'hostel' for 40Q. What was funny about it is that above the walls of the rooms, there was no ceiling (there was a roof) so you could get from one room to another just by climbing up the wall. (The next night we paid just 35Q. The man was not easily negotiated with.)
The next day we figured we didnt have a lot of money and worse, there was no ATM around. At first we just wandered around the village, which was very small and sleepy. It was cloudy and I wanted to wait for tomorrow if it gets better. But then again we didn't have money and there was nothing to do, so we decided to visit Semuc Champey that day.
Semuc Champey is basically a set of pools in the middle of the jungle. It was ok, but I have seen better things so far. After that I wanted to visit caves which were close. Vasek didn't want to do that at first because he didn't like caves, I forgot to take flashlight and there was the risk of missing transport back to Lanqin. Still, I wanted to go no matter what.
So we paid. The tour consisted of swimming (!) through the flooded cave system. We were given candles (!) to see in there. It started to get interesting. We joined a group of six people and walked in. Nobody, even the guide, had a flashlight so the cave walls were enlighten just by the weak candle light which created a really cool atmosphere. At the beginning we walked in with the water at our knees. Then we had to swim, climb some ladders, swim again and so on and so on. At the ends we jumped to a deep pool inside of the cave. When I was jumping I forgot I was wearing my glasses and when I jumped, I lost them. Luckily, there was the second tour guide who had a headlamp and dived down just twice to find them (the water was crystal clear). Wow. It was awesome. Better than Semuc Champey. It's just too bad I have no pictures of this tour, but there was a guy from Denmark who we have met before and I should receive his pics.
There was this other group where our Canadian friends were and so we knew that there will be transport back to Lanqin. After the caves we stayed with the group and mixed in it. They were just about to continue their program with river tubing and I was lucky enough to do it with them :) I was quite sure that we wont even pay for the transport but they figured we weren't in the group and we had to pay 15Q (which is 2$). Hehe, I did like that.
On the way back home the girls told us they were going to have dinner and if we wanted to join, we had to sigh up. We were busy with finding transport to Flores for the next day so we asked them to sign up for us. Back home we counted our many and concluded we cannot go to the dinner because it was 60Q. Still, we joined the girls on their way to make them company only to find out they were accepting credit cards in the restaurant. It was a buffet style dinner so we paid and I got to eat three full plates. This was the first time since leaving our all-you-can-eat dining halls at Union College that I was full. You would't guess the names that the girls used to sign us up: Carlos and Alberto :D
We stayed for some time, chatted and had some fun imitating animal noises. Stephanie turned out to be pretty good at imitating howler monkey while I struggled to imitate turkey :D Most surprisingly we found out that Stephanie actually puked on the way (from the window). Picturing that in my mind makes me laugh even now. :D
The next day, the girls left back for Antigua where they attended Spanish lessons and we waited for our shuttle to Flores where we were to see the famous Maya ruins of Tikal (the topic of next post)...
The shuttle to Semuc Champey turned out to cost $35 which was a lot more than we expected. I didn't want to pay it but we were short on time and this was the best way to get where we wanted, so we took it.
The shuttle took us to Antigua where we had about an hour before continuing to Lanqin (village close to Semuc Champey) so we went to the place with sandwiches. This time they had the gas and we really got them. Mine tasted great!
The van ride to Lanqin followed. It was just us and two girls from Quebec - Jessica and Stephanie, so I finally had a lot of room for me to be comfortable (particularly for my legs). As we were passing through Guatemala City, all the fumes from the traffic were making me sick. I was not the only one, as Stephanie opened the window and was leaning out of it for a while. She seemed to be ok, though.
I was reading the 1984 book by Orwell on my kindle. It is not bad but i expected it to be better, as it it listed among the best books of all time.
Anyway, we arrived in Lanqin at about 9 pm and got accommodated with the girls in a 'hostel' for 40Q. What was funny about it is that above the walls of the rooms, there was no ceiling (there was a roof) so you could get from one room to another just by climbing up the wall. (The next night we paid just 35Q. The man was not easily negotiated with.)
The next day we figured we didnt have a lot of money and worse, there was no ATM around. At first we just wandered around the village, which was very small and sleepy. It was cloudy and I wanted to wait for tomorrow if it gets better. But then again we didn't have money and there was nothing to do, so we decided to visit Semuc Champey that day.
Semuc Champey is basically a set of pools in the middle of the jungle. It was ok, but I have seen better things so far. After that I wanted to visit caves which were close. Vasek didn't want to do that at first because he didn't like caves, I forgot to take flashlight and there was the risk of missing transport back to Lanqin. Still, I wanted to go no matter what.
So we paid. The tour consisted of swimming (!) through the flooded cave system. We were given candles (!) to see in there. It started to get interesting. We joined a group of six people and walked in. Nobody, even the guide, had a flashlight so the cave walls were enlighten just by the weak candle light which created a really cool atmosphere. At the beginning we walked in with the water at our knees. Then we had to swim, climb some ladders, swim again and so on and so on. At the ends we jumped to a deep pool inside of the cave. When I was jumping I forgot I was wearing my glasses and when I jumped, I lost them. Luckily, there was the second tour guide who had a headlamp and dived down just twice to find them (the water was crystal clear). Wow. It was awesome. Better than Semuc Champey. It's just too bad I have no pictures of this tour, but there was a guy from Denmark who we have met before and I should receive his pics.
There was this other group where our Canadian friends were and so we knew that there will be transport back to Lanqin. After the caves we stayed with the group and mixed in it. They were just about to continue their program with river tubing and I was lucky enough to do it with them :) I was quite sure that we wont even pay for the transport but they figured we weren't in the group and we had to pay 15Q (which is 2$). Hehe, I did like that.
On the way back home the girls told us they were going to have dinner and if we wanted to join, we had to sigh up. We were busy with finding transport to Flores for the next day so we asked them to sign up for us. Back home we counted our many and concluded we cannot go to the dinner because it was 60Q. Still, we joined the girls on their way to make them company only to find out they were accepting credit cards in the restaurant. It was a buffet style dinner so we paid and I got to eat three full plates. This was the first time since leaving our all-you-can-eat dining halls at Union College that I was full. You would't guess the names that the girls used to sign us up: Carlos and Alberto :D
We stayed for some time, chatted and had some fun imitating animal noises. Stephanie turned out to be pretty good at imitating howler monkey while I struggled to imitate turkey :D Most surprisingly we found out that Stephanie actually puked on the way (from the window). Picturing that in my mind makes me laugh even now. :D
The next day, the girls left back for Antigua where they attended Spanish lessons and we waited for our shuttle to Flores where we were to see the famous Maya ruins of Tikal (the topic of next post)...
Monday, December 24, 2012
Lago de Atitlan
Aaand our next destiation was the Atitlan Lake! We arrived in the village of Panajachel by a totally overstuffed schoolbus from Antigua and I was really glad when I got out of it. After lunch and getting some travel information we met two guys in the street who offered us a boat-hike-boat tour for a reasonable price. Only one of them was talking, the other was more like a quiet amigo. The price was not bad but, we didnt want to pay it and decided to stay. When we left to find a hostel, the guy who talked caught up with us and offered a really good price so we agreed to go. We just needed some food and water, so he showed us a shop. We went there but when we got out, he was gone!
So we were standing there waiting and looking around when finally there was the quiet guy and told us to go with him to the harbour. I guess the other guy was trying to find more customers in the meantime.
Anyway, we came to the dock and got on a boat. The boat driver wanted us to pay the higher price but when we told him we wont go, he yielded. The plan was like this: he was supposed to take us to a village, then hike with us along the lake through two villages and another guy from the boat would pick us up there and take us to the village of San Pedro where we wanted to stay.
When we got to the first village and asked the guide where we were going i turned out he wanted to make a much smaller tour than we were expecting. We got upset and wanted our money back. He gave us some back so we paid just for the boat ride and then we did the hike by ourselves with all the backpacks we had. I think it was great. Carrying the backpacks made it only better. We got to San Pedro before the dusk and immediately upon the arrival, we were surrounded by about 4 guys offering 'free information'. We let them find an accomodation for us. They took us to a hostel which was Q40 per night and we took it.
Me and Libor were in one room when the owner came and told us to pay just for one night because otherwise he would have to pay more to the guys who took us there. Then Vasek came to the room and said the guides told him we should pay for two nights in advance because 'there are many tourists'. Funny. We paid just for one night, of course.
In the following days we climbed the Maya nose, kayaked on the lake and climbed the San Pedro volcano; let me talk more about those.
First morning we wanted to climb the maya nose hill. We weren quite sure about how to get there so went to see the 'free information' guys. They told us the entrance was 100Q (12$) and offered us a guide for a higher price. We did not believe the guys and asked a tuk tuk driver who told us the entrance is about 25Q and he would take us there for a fine price. We decided to take the tuk tuk and everything went on fine. We paid the entrance and started the climb. We reached one of the peaks but there was one peak that was even higher so we walked there. The was a small gate, we went through it and arrived at a lookout. We were relaxing on the top when there suddenly was a guy with a machette hanging from his waist telling us we have to pay 50Q per person for entering a private property. We argued with him quite a lot, refusing to pay so much if there was no sigh and no information about an entrance fee. He wanted to call police, we were pissed off and we kept arguing with him.
We ended up paying about 130Q because we old him we dont have more. Then he let us go and the way back was ok. The climb and views from the top were nice, but this encounter left a bitter feeling.
Later we went to a restaurant to have dinner. The place was nice and the food delicious but what is funny (later annoying) are the street vendors that are in every tourist destination in guatemala. The vendors dont hesitate to pay visits to restaurants and offer theur stuff to the people in them. Apparently this is something normal in Guate. There were approximately 8 visitsby vendors per evening. They usually sell some clothes, bracelets and blankets. Also there was this little funny girl selling nuts. She offered a mix of several kinds of nuts for 35Q. When I said no, she said 30, 25, 20, 15 quetzales in a very quick sequence. I did not buy it. I bought them the next day for 10.
The cayaking was interesting. There are dozens of buildings flooded by water because its level has raised by several metres in the past year. According to one of the locals, this happens every 50 years or so but the people building the houses either didnt care or didnt know. Anyway, kayaking in someones former living rooms and gardens was fun.
And the best for last was the San Pedro volcano. It was a long hike and we were rewarded by spectacular views.
Lago de Atitlan was really nice. The landscapes are beautiful and hiking phenomenal. Highly ecommended. If I had more time, I would have stayed.
So we were standing there waiting and looking around when finally there was the quiet guy and told us to go with him to the harbour. I guess the other guy was trying to find more customers in the meantime.
Anyway, we came to the dock and got on a boat. The boat driver wanted us to pay the higher price but when we told him we wont go, he yielded. The plan was like this: he was supposed to take us to a village, then hike with us along the lake through two villages and another guy from the boat would pick us up there and take us to the village of San Pedro where we wanted to stay.
When we got to the first village and asked the guide where we were going i turned out he wanted to make a much smaller tour than we were expecting. We got upset and wanted our money back. He gave us some back so we paid just for the boat ride and then we did the hike by ourselves with all the backpacks we had. I think it was great. Carrying the backpacks made it only better. We got to San Pedro before the dusk and immediately upon the arrival, we were surrounded by about 4 guys offering 'free information'. We let them find an accomodation for us. They took us to a hostel which was Q40 per night and we took it.
Me and Libor were in one room when the owner came and told us to pay just for one night because otherwise he would have to pay more to the guys who took us there. Then Vasek came to the room and said the guides told him we should pay for two nights in advance because 'there are many tourists'. Funny. We paid just for one night, of course.
In the following days we climbed the Maya nose, kayaked on the lake and climbed the San Pedro volcano; let me talk more about those.
First morning we wanted to climb the maya nose hill. We weren quite sure about how to get there so went to see the 'free information' guys. They told us the entrance was 100Q (12$) and offered us a guide for a higher price. We did not believe the guys and asked a tuk tuk driver who told us the entrance is about 25Q and he would take us there for a fine price. We decided to take the tuk tuk and everything went on fine. We paid the entrance and started the climb. We reached one of the peaks but there was one peak that was even higher so we walked there. The was a small gate, we went through it and arrived at a lookout. We were relaxing on the top when there suddenly was a guy with a machette hanging from his waist telling us we have to pay 50Q per person for entering a private property. We argued with him quite a lot, refusing to pay so much if there was no sigh and no information about an entrance fee. He wanted to call police, we were pissed off and we kept arguing with him.
We ended up paying about 130Q because we old him we dont have more. Then he let us go and the way back was ok. The climb and views from the top were nice, but this encounter left a bitter feeling.
Later we went to a restaurant to have dinner. The place was nice and the food delicious but what is funny (later annoying) are the street vendors that are in every tourist destination in guatemala. The vendors dont hesitate to pay visits to restaurants and offer theur stuff to the people in them. Apparently this is something normal in Guate. There were approximately 8 visitsby vendors per evening. They usually sell some clothes, bracelets and blankets. Also there was this little funny girl selling nuts. She offered a mix of several kinds of nuts for 35Q. When I said no, she said 30, 25, 20, 15 quetzales in a very quick sequence. I did not buy it. I bought them the next day for 10.
The cayaking was interesting. There are dozens of buildings flooded by water because its level has raised by several metres in the past year. According to one of the locals, this happens every 50 years or so but the people building the houses either didnt care or didnt know. Anyway, kayaking in someones former living rooms and gardens was fun.
And the best for last was the San Pedro volcano. It was a long hike and we were rewarded by spectacular views.
Lago de Atitlan was really nice. The landscapes are beautiful and hiking phenomenal. Highly ecommended. If I had more time, I would have stayed.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Antigua and Lago Atitlan
Let me start with something thats really unimportant but i wanna make a note of it. On the way to Guatemala I made use of the free internet access on kindle. Me and Vasek were going on the bus and thinking hard of how to say 'lathe' in Czech. But we could not think of the word. It was terrible. We would talk about something and after a while would come backto that topic. Over and over again. Whe we were most desperate I triumphantly draw my kindle from the bag and googled. Wikipedia answered the question: the word is 'soustruh'! ok I know this is not why you read this so back to the trip.
Like I said in the prevous post we arrived by a van from Guatemala City. The van dropped us at the Parque Central and we got accomodated in a cool hostel with a rooftop terrace with a view over the town and its three volcanoes. It was 40Q which is about $5 btw. The first day we climbed the cerro de la cruz hill from which there is a nice view over the town and particularly the Agua volcano. Unfortunately, the upper part of it was covered in a cloud. We have a bad luck in this.
The second day I woke up early to take some photographs at the sunrise. Then we just wandered around the town, visited the market, some church ruins and more. We found a different hostel to stay in because the water was not running in the first one.
The next day, Hana and Libor (our fellow students from CTU and Union) arrived. That was fun! Together we climbed the Pacaya volcano with a tour guide. The volcano itself was beautiful. Every volcano seems to offer something different. This one had a big lava field and leaking sulfid gasses which we havent seen before. The only incovenience was the guide who kept telling 'vamos' which means 'lets go' all the time and rushed, probably to take another group of people to the tour. Anyway, we took our time taking pictures and enjoying the views. We were always the last ones. In the afternoon we again visited Cerro de la Cruz and this time we were lucky to see the whole volcano. We showed Hana and Libor everything in the town that was worth seeing and the next day we left for the Lago Atitlan.
Eating was, of course, among the things we did. First day we had some streetfood at the market which was cheap and fine. When we asked a Dutch guy to take a photo of us, a homeless guy without teeth photobombed our photograph. Funny.
We also visited a restaurant where all of us ordered a regular main meal, except for Vasek who ordered sandwiches which were cheaper and yet the portion was much bigger. We decided to come back later and have the sandwiches for dinner. When we did so and made the order Libor had a bad feeling that the portion is going to be smaller. Libor always has a bad feeling or some kind of negative commentary.
He turned out to be right. First we were given different drinks from what we ordered. But that was just a misunderstanding. Second, they didnt have gas to make the french fries to go with the sandwich. Nevertheless, the waitress told us its was going to be ready in 15 minutes so we waited.
After 25 minutes we left for Burger King (yes, there is a burger king and mcdonalds in Antigua) and ate there.
I also finally got to meet some locals. I joined a group of local girls who were making some bracelets at Parque Central. One of them spoke English so we talked a bit in englis since my Spanish sucks. The reason why I met them was actually some guy from Holland who probably works with the kids there. I took some photographs of the girls and then printed some of them in a photography store. They were happy ;)
What I dont like much about Guatemala is that there are street vendors pretty much in every place we go and they do their best to make you buy their stuff or have your shoes polished and so on and so on. They even go to the restaurants and show you everything they offer even if you keep saying 'no, gracias'. The people who dont have anything in common with tourism seem to be the nicest. The tour operators and peope claiming to give you free information are the worst. They dont hesitate to lie to you about entrance costs and other facts just to make you take their offer. This was to be expected but it can get worse - you will see in the next post.
Like I said in the prevous post we arrived by a van from Guatemala City. The van dropped us at the Parque Central and we got accomodated in a cool hostel with a rooftop terrace with a view over the town and its three volcanoes. It was 40Q which is about $5 btw. The first day we climbed the cerro de la cruz hill from which there is a nice view over the town and particularly the Agua volcano. Unfortunately, the upper part of it was covered in a cloud. We have a bad luck in this.
The second day I woke up early to take some photographs at the sunrise. Then we just wandered around the town, visited the market, some church ruins and more. We found a different hostel to stay in because the water was not running in the first one.
The next day, Hana and Libor (our fellow students from CTU and Union) arrived. That was fun! Together we climbed the Pacaya volcano with a tour guide. The volcano itself was beautiful. Every volcano seems to offer something different. This one had a big lava field and leaking sulfid gasses which we havent seen before. The only incovenience was the guide who kept telling 'vamos' which means 'lets go' all the time and rushed, probably to take another group of people to the tour. Anyway, we took our time taking pictures and enjoying the views. We were always the last ones. In the afternoon we again visited Cerro de la Cruz and this time we were lucky to see the whole volcano. We showed Hana and Libor everything in the town that was worth seeing and the next day we left for the Lago Atitlan.
Eating was, of course, among the things we did. First day we had some streetfood at the market which was cheap and fine. When we asked a Dutch guy to take a photo of us, a homeless guy without teeth photobombed our photograph. Funny.
We also visited a restaurant where all of us ordered a regular main meal, except for Vasek who ordered sandwiches which were cheaper and yet the portion was much bigger. We decided to come back later and have the sandwiches for dinner. When we did so and made the order Libor had a bad feeling that the portion is going to be smaller. Libor always has a bad feeling or some kind of negative commentary.
He turned out to be right. First we were given different drinks from what we ordered. But that was just a misunderstanding. Second, they didnt have gas to make the french fries to go with the sandwich. Nevertheless, the waitress told us its was going to be ready in 15 minutes so we waited.
After 25 minutes we left for Burger King (yes, there is a burger king and mcdonalds in Antigua) and ate there.
I also finally got to meet some locals. I joined a group of local girls who were making some bracelets at Parque Central. One of them spoke English so we talked a bit in englis since my Spanish sucks. The reason why I met them was actually some guy from Holland who probably works with the kids there. I took some photographs of the girls and then printed some of them in a photography store. They were happy ;)
What I dont like much about Guatemala is that there are street vendors pretty much in every place we go and they do their best to make you buy their stuff or have your shoes polished and so on and so on. They even go to the restaurants and show you everything they offer even if you keep saying 'no, gracias'. The people who dont have anything in common with tourism seem to be the nicest. The tour operators and peope claiming to give you free information are the worst. They dont hesitate to lie to you about entrance costs and other facts just to make you take their offer. This was to be expected but it can get worse - you will see in the next post.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
The way to Guatemala City and Antigua
So after we climbed the volcano and stayed one more night in Leon, we took a bus to the capital - Managua. The way partly led through non paved roads which was a pain in the ass. Nevertheless, we arrived in Managua safely and took a cab to a hostel next to the bus station.
Next day we somehow managed to wake up at 3:45 am and took the ticabus to San Salvador. The air condition was proving that it worked well - in another words, it was freezing. Really cold. Luckily I was kinda expecting things and I took some warm clothes and I was fine. Still, I was pissed of by the fact that the staff didnt care about it even when I told them and they kept the engine (and the air condition) running even when we were waiting at the border for about 30 minutes. The bus was empty and just standing still on the parking lot, with the engine running.
Incidentally, not many people here care about nature. You could see it anywhere. The land is full of litter and various garbage. Wherever you look you could see plastig bags, plastic plates, plastic bottles and so on. Also, people often burn leaves that had fallen down from the trees and sometimes even some garbage they collected at home.
We spent the night in a hostel in El Salvador in a hostel owned by the bus company. The funny thing about this hostel was that the shower was in the same room as the toilet. Ok, this wouldnt be that much of a surprise but the mouth of the shower was almost right above the toilet itself so when I was taking shower, the toilet was ´taking shower´ too. Also, there was no sink.
The weirdest thing was yet to come: It was about 2am, I was asleep and there was a loud knock on the door. And it repeated. So I woke up and walked over to the door. It was the two guys from the reception. They had waken up Vaclav (who was in a different room), too, and claimed that we paid just for one room. We, of course, insisted that we paid for both of us. They talked between themselves in quick Spanish and I had no idea what was going on. After about 5 minutes, another hostel guy appeared and got involved. God. After another five minutes they let us go back to the beds. We didn´t have to pay anything, so it was okay but their manners made me wonder.
The bus from Salvador to Guatemala was different from the one by which we came. At the beggining the temperature was promising. But as the time passed by, we got to 15 degrees celsius (there was a thermometer) so it was all the same. I didnt even bother to complain. Some guys from Israel told us its always like this in Ticabusses). There was one unexpected stop - one of the two staff persons somehow misused the fire extuinguisher and the front part of the bus was hidden in a white powder for a couple of minutes. There was no fire - they just somehow must have pushed the valve on the extuinguisher. After the driver cleaned his stuff from the powder, the bus kept on going. There was no apology, we just kept on going. I guess this was normal... I just shook my head in disbelief.
From what I have seen from the bus, Guatemala seems like a nice country. The nature and landscapes I saw from the bus were really nice, even with the plastic bags. We arrived in Guatemala at noon and decided to take a van directly to Antigua. We shared it with the Israeli guys and girls from Germany. We normally don´t do this but the price was ok and it was far more convenient than taking a taxi to the bus terminal and then a chickenbus.
The driver was crazy. It was a really fast driving AND the driver even crossed himself (pokrizoval se) a couple of times before the fastest parts. Anyway, we arrived ok and I got to see some fun stuff, among other I took a video of a guy who was mounting the luggage on the roof of the chickenbus and than climbed down the ladder and entered the bus by the emerency exit as if nothing ahappened. Funny.
So, after all of this we arrived in Antigua. It seems to be kinda different from the other towns we have seen so far. There will be more to Antigua in next article... :)
Next day we somehow managed to wake up at 3:45 am and took the ticabus to San Salvador. The air condition was proving that it worked well - in another words, it was freezing. Really cold. Luckily I was kinda expecting things and I took some warm clothes and I was fine. Still, I was pissed of by the fact that the staff didnt care about it even when I told them and they kept the engine (and the air condition) running even when we were waiting at the border for about 30 minutes. The bus was empty and just standing still on the parking lot, with the engine running.
Incidentally, not many people here care about nature. You could see it anywhere. The land is full of litter and various garbage. Wherever you look you could see plastig bags, plastic plates, plastic bottles and so on. Also, people often burn leaves that had fallen down from the trees and sometimes even some garbage they collected at home.
We spent the night in a hostel in El Salvador in a hostel owned by the bus company. The funny thing about this hostel was that the shower was in the same room as the toilet. Ok, this wouldnt be that much of a surprise but the mouth of the shower was almost right above the toilet itself so when I was taking shower, the toilet was ´taking shower´ too. Also, there was no sink.
The weirdest thing was yet to come: It was about 2am, I was asleep and there was a loud knock on the door. And it repeated. So I woke up and walked over to the door. It was the two guys from the reception. They had waken up Vaclav (who was in a different room), too, and claimed that we paid just for one room. We, of course, insisted that we paid for both of us. They talked between themselves in quick Spanish and I had no idea what was going on. After about 5 minutes, another hostel guy appeared and got involved. God. After another five minutes they let us go back to the beds. We didn´t have to pay anything, so it was okay but their manners made me wonder.
The bus from Salvador to Guatemala was different from the one by which we came. At the beggining the temperature was promising. But as the time passed by, we got to 15 degrees celsius (there was a thermometer) so it was all the same. I didnt even bother to complain. Some guys from Israel told us its always like this in Ticabusses). There was one unexpected stop - one of the two staff persons somehow misused the fire extuinguisher and the front part of the bus was hidden in a white powder for a couple of minutes. There was no fire - they just somehow must have pushed the valve on the extuinguisher. After the driver cleaned his stuff from the powder, the bus kept on going. There was no apology, we just kept on going. I guess this was normal... I just shook my head in disbelief.
From what I have seen from the bus, Guatemala seems like a nice country. The nature and landscapes I saw from the bus were really nice, even with the plastic bags. We arrived in Guatemala at noon and decided to take a van directly to Antigua. We shared it with the Israeli guys and girls from Germany. We normally don´t do this but the price was ok and it was far more convenient than taking a taxi to the bus terminal and then a chickenbus.
The driver was crazy. It was a really fast driving AND the driver even crossed himself (pokrizoval se) a couple of times before the fastest parts. Anyway, we arrived ok and I got to see some fun stuff, among other I took a video of a guy who was mounting the luggage on the roof of the chickenbus and than climbed down the ladder and entered the bus by the emerency exit as if nothing ahappened. Funny.
So, after all of this we arrived in Antigua. It seems to be kinda different from the other towns we have seen so far. There will be more to Antigua in next article... :)
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Telica volcano
The day before yesterday, we didnt do much. We needed to rest for one day.
The next day, we started by buying the bus ticket from Managua to Guatemala City. There was one funny moment: we were in the Ticabus office making the reservation and at some point the guy behind the desk just opened a drawer, pulled out a hammer and put it in another drawer. I started laughing really hard. A hammer!
Other than that, everything went on surprisingly smooth and we got our tickets for 55 us dollars.
I washed my clothes at last! The plastic bag where I store worn clothes produced almost toxic fumes, not kidding. It smells so much better now...
At 2pm we left for the Telica volcano, to finally see lava in the crater of an active volcano. After a jumpy journey in a toyota jeep we hiked for about an hour to the final destination - the crater rim. We laid down on the ground and looked down to see the bubbling lava. So now I can say i have seen lava. (lava - check) The hike was easy, much easier than volcan Conception but seeing the lava and the whole crater was something new. I dont remember the dimension but both the diameter and deepness of the crater were quite big numbers. Today we are headed to Managua to catch a bus to Guatemala city. Yay!
The next day, we started by buying the bus ticket from Managua to Guatemala City. There was one funny moment: we were in the Ticabus office making the reservation and at some point the guy behind the desk just opened a drawer, pulled out a hammer and put it in another drawer. I started laughing really hard. A hammer!
Other than that, everything went on surprisingly smooth and we got our tickets for 55 us dollars.
I washed my clothes at last! The plastic bag where I store worn clothes produced almost toxic fumes, not kidding. It smells so much better now...
At 2pm we left for the Telica volcano, to finally see lava in the crater of an active volcano. After a jumpy journey in a toyota jeep we hiked for about an hour to the final destination - the crater rim. We laid down on the ground and looked down to see the bubbling lava. So now I can say i have seen lava. (lava - check) The hike was easy, much easier than volcan Conception but seeing the lava and the whole crater was something new. I dont remember the dimension but both the diameter and deepness of the crater were quite big numbers. Today we are headed to Managua to catch a bus to Guatemala city. Yay!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Nicaragua - Jinotega + Leon
Yesterday, we wanted to move to Leon but the Swiss guys told us hostels are full because of some celebrations on December 7th. Therefore, we decided to spend the day in Jinotega instead.
Jinotega is not a very touristy town but we dont mind that at all. Just like Matagalpa, Jinotega is set in a valley, surrounded by mountains and we got there practicly just to climb one of those and get some views of the town and the area.
We took a bus and the way itself was full of opportunities to see nice landscapes. We arrived in the town at the dusk, got accomodated and ate a cheap dinner in a no name place in the street. I had beef with rice&beans and some stuff whose name I dont know. Nevertheless, it was really delicious.
In the morning we wanted to go to a bakery recommended in our lonely planet guide but finding the place turned out to be bigger problem that we had expected. After asking some locals, we got to someones home (!!) because apparently the name of the place was also as name of a family. So the boy whom we asked brought us to the family house which was made of some cheap material, there was no light and there was soil on the ground. When we said we were looking for a place to eat the woman started laughing hard and we left, laughing even more. We gave up on finding the bakery and bought some bread in a convenience store, had breakfast and left for the climb. Incidentally, we passed by a cathedral and peeked inside only to discover there was a marriage taking place. Often I have this feeling that I dont belong to the places we get to. Never mind, we found the cemetery from where our trail started and moved on.
As opposed to what we expected the trail was not covered by trees and there was intense heat from the sun. After some 50 minutes of griling we got to the top and it was worth it because we got almost 360 degrees lookout and we were able to see really far away. We spent some time on the top just chilling, talking and applying sunscreen :D. On the highest point there was built a big cross (crucifix) which makes some the photographs look kinda majestic. Nice.
Our favorite no name grill was closed so we ate at the first open place we found. The food was more expensive and not at all better. Still, they had 1 litre of Tona (beer) for a pretty good price so we were just drinking beer and having almost phylosophical talks about whatever came to our minds. We totally forgot about the bus back to Matagalpa from where we were to catch the bus to Leon. Things got even more complicated when Vasek figured he didnt have enough money to pay the meal because he took just a small amount of money with him. So I went to the hostel, got our backpacks with money and we finally paid. Then we had just about the right time to make it to the bus and because we are not pussies to take cabs we walked and arrived at the bus station just on time to get on the bus. Then in Matagalpa we walked to the hostel where we spent the previous nights because Vasek forgot his pair of scissors in it. We got it and this time took a cab because that was the only way to make it.
It was a huge surprise to find out that our bus to Leon was not full!! There were only about 5 people in it and not many people got in on the way. Even though this experinece does not fit our observations, let me state a theorem.
The n+1 Nicaraguan theorem:
If there is n people on the bus, you can always fit n+1 people in there. (n being any natural number greater or equal to zero)
Proof:
Get in any bus in Nicaragua except for the connection between Matagalpa and Leon.
So, we are in Leon and everything is fine :)
Jinotega is not a very touristy town but we dont mind that at all. Just like Matagalpa, Jinotega is set in a valley, surrounded by mountains and we got there practicly just to climb one of those and get some views of the town and the area.
We took a bus and the way itself was full of opportunities to see nice landscapes. We arrived in the town at the dusk, got accomodated and ate a cheap dinner in a no name place in the street. I had beef with rice&beans and some stuff whose name I dont know. Nevertheless, it was really delicious.
In the morning we wanted to go to a bakery recommended in our lonely planet guide but finding the place turned out to be bigger problem that we had expected. After asking some locals, we got to someones home (!!) because apparently the name of the place was also as name of a family. So the boy whom we asked brought us to the family house which was made of some cheap material, there was no light and there was soil on the ground. When we said we were looking for a place to eat the woman started laughing hard and we left, laughing even more. We gave up on finding the bakery and bought some bread in a convenience store, had breakfast and left for the climb. Incidentally, we passed by a cathedral and peeked inside only to discover there was a marriage taking place. Often I have this feeling that I dont belong to the places we get to. Never mind, we found the cemetery from where our trail started and moved on.
As opposed to what we expected the trail was not covered by trees and there was intense heat from the sun. After some 50 minutes of griling we got to the top and it was worth it because we got almost 360 degrees lookout and we were able to see really far away. We spent some time on the top just chilling, talking and applying sunscreen :D. On the highest point there was built a big cross (crucifix) which makes some the photographs look kinda majestic. Nice.
Our favorite no name grill was closed so we ate at the first open place we found. The food was more expensive and not at all better. Still, they had 1 litre of Tona (beer) for a pretty good price so we were just drinking beer and having almost phylosophical talks about whatever came to our minds. We totally forgot about the bus back to Matagalpa from where we were to catch the bus to Leon. Things got even more complicated when Vasek figured he didnt have enough money to pay the meal because he took just a small amount of money with him. So I went to the hostel, got our backpacks with money and we finally paid. Then we had just about the right time to make it to the bus and because we are not pussies to take cabs we walked and arrived at the bus station just on time to get on the bus. Then in Matagalpa we walked to the hostel where we spent the previous nights because Vasek forgot his pair of scissors in it. We got it and this time took a cab because that was the only way to make it.
It was a huge surprise to find out that our bus to Leon was not full!! There were only about 5 people in it and not many people got in on the way. Even though this experinece does not fit our observations, let me state a theorem.
The n+1 Nicaraguan theorem:
If there is n people on the bus, you can always fit n+1 people in there. (n being any natural number greater or equal to zero)
Proof:
Get in any bus in Nicaragua except for the connection between Matagalpa and Leon.
So, we are in Leon and everything is fine :)
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Nicaragua - Matagalpa
First, i am sorry for all the typos, bad grammar and inconsistency in post names. All of this is written on my kindle reader and as you can guess, kindle was designed more for reading rather than writing or creating any kind of content. Funny thing happened to my kindle btw. When we were staying in Masaya, our room was full of mosquitoes so Vasek used the reppelent in the hope its going to make them leave the room. later i discovered that the drops of the repellent that had fallen on my kindle corroded its surface. Too bad :(... Now back to the story.
We spent the day in Matagalpa just wandering around. As the school year ended, there was a lot of children wearing the school uniforms in the streets. We also accidentally got to some kind of celebration of this. We saw some churches and a museum. To be honest, wandering the city streets doesnt please me much, no matter if in Matagalpa or Granada. I think Vasek has it the same way. We shall consider shrinking the town walks to the neccessary minimum :)
As i mentioned before, Matagalpa is enclosed by mountains and we climbed one of the mountains that has a lookout on top of it. We started the climb later in the afternoon as the weather was too hot before. In the hostel i had a nice chat with a girl from Canada. Meeting new people is refreshing. i do like it.
The climb was steep but short and i daresay it led through the poorest district. They live in cabins made of whatever got into their hands - mostly bricks, mud and some plastic boards. There was a lot of children running around us and talking to us. Sadly i understood none of what they said (guess it were some jokes on our account), except for when a little girl told us: adios, gringos.
We made some jokes about what might happen to us and kept on going.
The view was great. Again, there were a lot of children who finished the school. Some of them started talking to me and we talked (calling it a talk is a exaggeration, though). The children were about 15years old and were drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes. Sad.
We waited for the sunset and left. One of the pupils caught up with us and offered us to go and play volleyball with them. We thanked for the invitation but refused and hurried back to the hostel because it was getting dark quickly. Some of the grown up men from the cabins would shout at us something about gringos but I didnt look back and just walked.
Again, we had dinner with the Swiss guys. Now everyone but me is sleeping.
Good night from Matagalpa...
We spent the day in Matagalpa just wandering around. As the school year ended, there was a lot of children wearing the school uniforms in the streets. We also accidentally got to some kind of celebration of this. We saw some churches and a museum. To be honest, wandering the city streets doesnt please me much, no matter if in Matagalpa or Granada. I think Vasek has it the same way. We shall consider shrinking the town walks to the neccessary minimum :)
As i mentioned before, Matagalpa is enclosed by mountains and we climbed one of the mountains that has a lookout on top of it. We started the climb later in the afternoon as the weather was too hot before. In the hostel i had a nice chat with a girl from Canada. Meeting new people is refreshing. i do like it.
The climb was steep but short and i daresay it led through the poorest district. They live in cabins made of whatever got into their hands - mostly bricks, mud and some plastic boards. There was a lot of children running around us and talking to us. Sadly i understood none of what they said (guess it were some jokes on our account), except for when a little girl told us: adios, gringos.
We made some jokes about what might happen to us and kept on going.
The view was great. Again, there were a lot of children who finished the school. Some of them started talking to me and we talked (calling it a talk is a exaggeration, though). The children were about 15years old and were drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes. Sad.
We waited for the sunset and left. One of the pupils caught up with us and offered us to go and play volleyball with them. We thanked for the invitation but refused and hurried back to the hostel because it was getting dark quickly. Some of the grown up men from the cabins would shout at us something about gringos but I didnt look back and just walked.
Again, we had dinner with the Swiss guys. Now everyone but me is sleeping.
Good night from Matagalpa...
Masaya + Arrival to Matagalpa
Our next destination was Masaya. i dont have much to say about the town, except it has a big and chaotic bus terminal (by terminal i mean just a dusty field) and a lot of shops with some hand made stuff ranging from purses to bracelets and shoes. Also a lot of stuff made of wood. I was consideing buying a hammock but ended up buying a tshirt which i really need because until now i have been traveling with just two tshirts. Anyway, the main reason for staying in Masaya was seeing the Laguna Apoyo.
And it was nice. It was perhaps the best swim so far. The laguna is in a former volcano crater so when swimming, you´re surrounded by jungle hills from all sides. Plus, the water is crystal clear. We spent there the whole afternoon just chilling which (for me) consisted mainly of swimming, drinking beer, laying in a hammock and reading the biography of Steve Jobs on my kindle.
The next day we moved to Matagalpa, a town higher in the muntains of northern Nicaragua. Matagalpa is again surrounded by hills which we have yet to climb to get the view over the town. When we got off the bus there was a guy (Canadian is my guess) who recommended us a hostel called Buena Onda and we followed his advice. Indeed it was a nice place with a lot of travelers and friendly, english speaking staff.
We went to dinner with two Swiss - Martina and Moritz and developed stories about why we cannot access the hostel kitchen after 10am. Also we had a lot of fun with a guitar player named Orlando. He asked me what my name was and apparently there is a word in Spanish that sounds similar to my name and it means "to spin". Orlando couldn't stop laughing about that. Too bad i cant speak spanish...
And it was nice. It was perhaps the best swim so far. The laguna is in a former volcano crater so when swimming, you´re surrounded by jungle hills from all sides. Plus, the water is crystal clear. We spent there the whole afternoon just chilling which (for me) consisted mainly of swimming, drinking beer, laying in a hammock and reading the biography of Steve Jobs on my kindle.
The next day we moved to Matagalpa, a town higher in the muntains of northern Nicaragua. Matagalpa is again surrounded by hills which we have yet to climb to get the view over the town. When we got off the bus there was a guy (Canadian is my guess) who recommended us a hostel called Buena Onda and we followed his advice. Indeed it was a nice place with a lot of travelers and friendly, english speaking staff.
We went to dinner with two Swiss - Martina and Moritz and developed stories about why we cannot access the hostel kitchen after 10am. Also we had a lot of fun with a guitar player named Orlando. He asked me what my name was and apparently there is a word in Spanish that sounds similar to my name and it means "to spin". Orlando couldn't stop laughing about that. Too bad i cant speak spanish...
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Centroamericana - Nicaragua
It's funny how much you keep meeting the same people when youre traveling. you meet someone on a ferry to an island, the next day you meet them in springs, and the next day you meet them in the street while shopping... there are more examples to tell.
Fun fact: wherever we go, there are plenty of German tourists.
Today we left the ometepe island by a ferry and a cab to Rivas. Two hour bus ride for about $1.50 to the town of Granada followed.
I have not talked much about the busses; let me do it now, as it is a nice example of how the things work here and it gives you some insight. The busses in Nicaragua are almost exclusively former us school busses, sometimes painted in bright colors. They often go extremely full, with loads of people standing in the isle and luggage on the roof. Luggage can be pretty much anything from backpacks to bags of rice, wood, bike or old tires. The emergency exit in the back is used as a regular entrance and sometimes the lever of that door had been used so much that it stopped working and the door opens just randomly. There are often one to two guys in the back, going on the bus but outside of it (!) who load and unload the bus with peoples stuff. The door that was once automatic is now opened by whoever needs to do so. You dont get much comfort but the price is more than friendly - so far i never paid more than three us dollars. Before the bus departs from a terminal there is always a dozen steet vendors passing through the bus and selling some refreshements. While going on a bus in europe is quite boring, here its a cool experience.
Granada is a town built in the colonial style, quite nice but equally dirty. We just wandered around, visited the two churches and soaked the atmosphere. We found a hostel for a good price right at Calle la Calzada which is the street of bars and restaurants. Later in the afternoon we had to say goodbye to Mathias who left because he is going back to Germany, to stay with his family over christmas and to see his girlfriend :). Mathias, it was great with you. We will miss your positive attitude and active approach to organizing our time. I can tell we had a great time together.
We went shopping and when we got out of the supermarket it was totally dark. We managed to make our way through the crowds in the main shooping street and arrived to our hostel safely. I have to admit there were moments when i didnt feel safe but genrally speaking i feel safe most of the time.
As we were in the bar street it would be a sin not to go out and have a drink. We ended up in a irish pub :D and the smoothie i had was the best smoothie ever!!
The last thing worth mentioning is that i went out with my camera and tripod and took some photographs at the Parque central. Even though it was late, the square was bustling with activity. Indeed, the streets are most vibrant in the late evening and the night. It is simply too hot in the afternoon.
Now we moved to Masaya and we are headed to the Laguna de Apoyo.
Fun fact: wherever we go, there are plenty of German tourists.
Today we left the ometepe island by a ferry and a cab to Rivas. Two hour bus ride for about $1.50 to the town of Granada followed.
I have not talked much about the busses; let me do it now, as it is a nice example of how the things work here and it gives you some insight. The busses in Nicaragua are almost exclusively former us school busses, sometimes painted in bright colors. They often go extremely full, with loads of people standing in the isle and luggage on the roof. Luggage can be pretty much anything from backpacks to bags of rice, wood, bike or old tires. The emergency exit in the back is used as a regular entrance and sometimes the lever of that door had been used so much that it stopped working and the door opens just randomly. There are often one to two guys in the back, going on the bus but outside of it (!) who load and unload the bus with peoples stuff. The door that was once automatic is now opened by whoever needs to do so. You dont get much comfort but the price is more than friendly - so far i never paid more than three us dollars. Before the bus departs from a terminal there is always a dozen steet vendors passing through the bus and selling some refreshements. While going on a bus in europe is quite boring, here its a cool experience.
Granada is a town built in the colonial style, quite nice but equally dirty. We just wandered around, visited the two churches and soaked the atmosphere. We found a hostel for a good price right at Calle la Calzada which is the street of bars and restaurants. Later in the afternoon we had to say goodbye to Mathias who left because he is going back to Germany, to stay with his family over christmas and to see his girlfriend :). Mathias, it was great with you. We will miss your positive attitude and active approach to organizing our time. I can tell we had a great time together.
We went shopping and when we got out of the supermarket it was totally dark. We managed to make our way through the crowds in the main shooping street and arrived to our hostel safely. I have to admit there were moments when i didnt feel safe but genrally speaking i feel safe most of the time.
As we were in the bar street it would be a sin not to go out and have a drink. We ended up in a irish pub :D and the smoothie i had was the best smoothie ever!!
The last thing worth mentioning is that i went out with my camera and tripod and took some photographs at the Parque central. Even though it was late, the square was bustling with activity. Indeed, the streets are most vibrant in the late evening and the night. It is simply too hot in the afternoon.
Now we moved to Masaya and we are headed to the Laguna de Apoyo.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Central america continued
From Costa Rica we moved to our next planned destination, the Ometepe island in Nicaragua.
While Costa Rica is quite developed, Nicaragua is how i imagined the central america. Old US school busses, cows and pigs in the streets, and the general feeling of how things work here.
The Ometepe island is formed by two volcanoes that are set in the middle of a huge lake (lago de nicaragua) - almost like in a fairy tale story.
The first night we stayed in Charco Verde in a cabin right on the beach. The sunset was beautiful. We visited the natural reserve and finally spotted some wildlife: howler monkeys and some birds. Then we rented bikes (absolutely terrible but at least we were able to bargain to 50% of the price) and went to a beach and a pool of spring water, the pool being far more interesting. I bought a nice colorful bracelet for about 50 cordobas. As you can imagine, riding a bike on a volcano island is not the easiest thing to do (most people rent motorbikes) but we strive for an intensive experience. Keeping that in mind we decided to climb the higher (naturally) of the two volcanoes. As there were several cases of death when climbing it, we took a guide and mated up with a guy from Israel who wanted to do it but his friends were either sick or too lazy.
The climb started at 5 oclock by taking a bus to the village of Concepcion and continuing to walk from there. The first part was walking through the woods. As we were getting higher (in altitude) there were fewer trees and plants, finally resulting in a stoney ground with patches of grass here and there.
This is where the second part starts. The view was most beautiful from here and the wind extremely strong. The slope is quite steep and there are just stones and a slippery volcanic scree. Keeping going, we soon entered a cloud that sits on the upper part of the volcano almost all the time. That was the most serious part - often i had to use my hands to keep balance. We kept climbing up and after some time i could feel that the rocks were warm and i could smel some sulfid gasses in the air.
We finally reached the summit at 9 oclock but the wind was too strong for us to stand and without moving we got cold quickly so we spent there less than a minute. The feeling, however, was absolutely great. As we were in a cloud we couldnt really see anything and so we began do climb down. This was quite tricky and personally i prefer walking up. We met two gyus without a guide (later we saw them again - they didnt get to the top) and one more group. We got back to Conception at 12:40 just in time to take a bus back.
It was a serious hike and the most intense experience so far. It was really great. I wonder whats going to top this.
While Costa Rica is quite developed, Nicaragua is how i imagined the central america. Old US school busses, cows and pigs in the streets, and the general feeling of how things work here.
The Ometepe island is formed by two volcanoes that are set in the middle of a huge lake (lago de nicaragua) - almost like in a fairy tale story.
The first night we stayed in Charco Verde in a cabin right on the beach. The sunset was beautiful. We visited the natural reserve and finally spotted some wildlife: howler monkeys and some birds. Then we rented bikes (absolutely terrible but at least we were able to bargain to 50% of the price) and went to a beach and a pool of spring water, the pool being far more interesting. I bought a nice colorful bracelet for about 50 cordobas. As you can imagine, riding a bike on a volcano island is not the easiest thing to do (most people rent motorbikes) but we strive for an intensive experience. Keeping that in mind we decided to climb the higher (naturally) of the two volcanoes. As there were several cases of death when climbing it, we took a guide and mated up with a guy from Israel who wanted to do it but his friends were either sick or too lazy.
The climb started at 5 oclock by taking a bus to the village of Concepcion and continuing to walk from there. The first part was walking through the woods. As we were getting higher (in altitude) there were fewer trees and plants, finally resulting in a stoney ground with patches of grass here and there.
This is where the second part starts. The view was most beautiful from here and the wind extremely strong. The slope is quite steep and there are just stones and a slippery volcanic scree. Keeping going, we soon entered a cloud that sits on the upper part of the volcano almost all the time. That was the most serious part - often i had to use my hands to keep balance. We kept climbing up and after some time i could feel that the rocks were warm and i could smel some sulfid gasses in the air.
We finally reached the summit at 9 oclock but the wind was too strong for us to stand and without moving we got cold quickly so we spent there less than a minute. The feeling, however, was absolutely great. As we were in a cloud we couldnt really see anything and so we began do climb down. This was quite tricky and personally i prefer walking up. We met two gyus without a guide (later we saw them again - they didnt get to the top) and one more group. We got back to Conception at 12:40 just in time to take a bus back.
It was a serious hike and the most intense experience so far. It was really great. I wonder whats going to top this.
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