Tezra and I spent about two weeks in Guatemala, but just over 24 hours in El Salvador. Turns out, it was on my birthday! And what a day it was...
Our bus left the station in Guatemala City at 7:30 in the morning. Like so many other travel days, we were up early. I really felt as though my brief time in the city had only shown me parts of town which were quite a bit more updated from how it had been described to me. As a result of the location of this bus station, we got to see a part of town that was much more raw. The streets were full of people and the buildings seemed in need of some serious repair. It wasn't the sort of neighborhood I would have wanted to take a stroll through after dark.
There was a bakery across the street from the terminal, so I had a rather plain muffin for breakfast. Consumption of the coffee looked as though it might be tempting fate, so I stuck with the water we had with us. The bus left basically on time, and I was anxious for the five hour ride to be over so I could eat something of a bit more substance. Well, about an hour into the drive we pulled over to the side of the road and came to a stop in front of a small store. Tezra informed me she had heard the driver say there was something wrong when they shifted gears and he wanted to check it out. We had sat for about an hour when I decided to step off the bus and get some fresh air. Just like anywhere else, a mechanical problem seems to draw a crowd. There were three or four men standing around the engine in the back of the bus, with one covered in grease. I´m going to guess that at least half of those men didn't know the first thing about engine repair, but thought that their advice could be valuable nonetheless.
Two hours after we pulled off to the side of the road, a second bus came by from the same company, and we piled in. It´s funny how one adjusts to the different ways of thinking about time. Tezra and I talked about how back home people would have been furious over a two hour delay. Here it is taken as no big deal by most everyone. I can´t say that the wait bothered me in the least.
This new bus already had passengers on it, and it turned out that there were exactly enough seats for everyone to have one. We ended up in the back of the bus where three people could sit next to the bathroom. After another couple of hours, we finally made it to the border. While waiting to get into El Salvador, or seat mate climbed off the bus and returned a few minutes later with a black bag. He opened it up and pulled out a cold, local beer. I must have been staring at it, because he offered me one from his bag. Then Tezra was offered one. He introduced himself as Ernesto, and we started to small talk. His English was very good, and it came up that it was my birthday. As we were still at the border, he stood up and told us that he was going to go and get more beer.
Ernesto came back with a six-pack, which meant that there were three beers each for us. It was a warm day, and they tasted great. Maybe too good. Mine went down really quickly...along with one Tezra didn't drink. Half an hour out of San Salvador, I sat in the back of the bus with a dumb smile on my face and gratitude that this was how I would remember my 25th birthday.
As we pulled into town, Ernesto made sure that we had an idea of how to get to a hostel from where the bus would drop us off. Once he felt that we understood the directions he was telling us, he jumped up, told us goodbye, and quickly excited the bus. Tezra looked at me and started to laugh. ¨Do you think that guardian angels ever show up bearing beer?¨ She asked me. I wasn't in any state of mind to contemplate such notions.
The rest of the day went quite smoothly. After finding our hostel we got a Frosty at Wendy´s. Then, a few hours later, Tezra treated me to dinner at a Mexican restaurant a short walk from our hostel. It had the best (and loudest) mariachi band that I have ever heard live. Since it was my birthday, we went out for ice cream afterward. Our guidebook told us about a place called Mr. Donut, and I had been wanting to go to one in El Salvador since reading about it. Just our luck, I spied one right next to the ice cream shop. So again, since it was my birthday, we went and had a donut right after ice cream. I slept well in my food coma that night.
There was time for just one sightseeing event the next day, as our bus back to Honduras left at noon. Both of us wanted to make our way to the university to see the Oscar Romero Museum. Oscar Romero was the Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador during the time of the countries civil war. Like many priests, he became an activist for the poor, and spoke out against the government when it became clear that they were killing entire villages just to get one or two people who were suspected of being communist. In the end, he was shot in the head during a church service while preparing communion. He was not the only church worker to be killed, as six Jesuit Priests were also murdered on government orders on the university campus.
The museum is small, with a collection of many of the priests personal things. The clothes they were wearing when they were murdered are also on display. Oscar Romero´s robes and staff are on display, as well as some wonderful artwork. We agreed that is was the most well put together museum that we have seen down here. Tours are run by students, and you also are shown the rose garden that has been planted on the soil where the six priests bodies were found. On top of all of that, the museum is free. I´m glad that so many people have access to it.
From the museum, we made our way on to the bus station and from there to Honduras. Tezra had to pick up the rest of here belongings before we could make it back down to Costa Rica.
Our story continues in the town of Flores, which is where most people set up who are interested in seeing Tikal. As I mentioned at the end of my last post, we took the overnight bus up from Antigua, and I was fortunate enough that though still a bit unsettled, I was feeling better for the most part. The medicine we picked up at the pharmacy did its job well.
Tikal is one of the great ancient Mayan cities. You will remember that I visited Copan in Honduras. This is the same sort of deal, but only on a much grander scale. Tikal was rediscovered in the early 1880's, and there are some impressive pictures taken then of what the temples looked like before being cleaned of the vegetation that was growing on them. Of course, now the plazas have been completely cleaned up and it is one of the largest tourist spots in all of Guatemala.
This is the one place in Guatemala I really wanted to see before getting into the country. Ruins seem to be a polarizing tourist attraction. You either like them or you don't. I love them. It is just fascinating to me that humans during any time period could build something so grand. The tops of these stone monuments literally stick out above the forest canopy! If you had asked me 48 hours before we actually arrived at Tikal how long I would have wanted to stay there, I would have told you the whole day. Unfortunately, the damp heat of the day along with the fact that I had almost no calories in my body from being sick left me feeling pretty weak and tired after merely an hour. After walking around the Grand Plaza, and climbing a very large staircase to see how the monument tops really do break the tree line, I was in need of getting into the shade. We decided after two hours there that it would be best to head back to our hostel for a bit of food and a nap. If I ever return to Guatemala, I will return to Tikal.
Thankfully, I was hungry that afternoon and the food I ate remained with me through the night and into the morning. In my mind, I declared myself well when I woke up and decided some dairy would be fine for breakfast. No problems there either. This was good because we were headed out on another six hour minibus journey. Our destination this time was a remote ecological wonder called Semuc Champey.
In the indigenous language, Semuc Champey means, "Where the water runs under the land." As the water comes down from the mountains, there is one spot in the limestone deposit where the water has carved its way through the rock and a natural overhang has been formed. The water becomes quite turbulent in this area. However, as the water goes underground, a bit of it remains above and nature has left a series of seven aqua blue pools. This is the draw. The pools are deep enough to swim in, and the fish in them are anxious to check out your toes if you stand still long enough.
I jumped into several of the pools for a swim. The water was crystal clear and much less cold than I thought it would be. It was actually quite comfortable to stay in for awhile. Tezra wasn't feeling well, so she took the photos. Before we left to go back to our hostel, I took a fifteen minute hike up one of the surrounding hills to catch an overhead glimpse of the pools. What a magnificent view! The forest just opens up, and I could see the tiny specks of people swimming in the water below.
After two nights at Semuc Champey, we started to make our way back to Guatemala City so we could head out to El Salvador. There was one last thing to do though. It would be a travesty for a coffee lover like me to leave Central America without touring a coffee farm. The town we were switching buses in had a small scale plantation on its outskirts, and we headed over that way for a tour before the bus left. It was a brief tour, but interesting to see the beans growing and hear a bit about the process. Plus, we were treated to a cup of their coffee at the end of the tour, which was delicious!
That night we stayed in Guatemala City, and left on the morning bus the next day to spend my birthday in San Salvador, El Salvador.
This past week in Nicaragua has been an absolute blast! I´ve hiked a volcano, spent a few nights on an island, eaten some great food, and slept in some wonderful hostels. But let me be a bit more detailed than that.
The bus arrived at the Managua station as near on time as I can imagine a Central American bus getting anywhere. As usual, I met a few other travelers who were headed the same way as myself, so we shared a taxi to the minibus station right across from the University of Central America. Having been told by several people that Managua was not a city that really had much for tourists, I was keen to head south as soon as possible. These Australians and Norwegians were like-minded. We rode the half hour or so to Granada, an old colonial town, together. One of the Aussies and I struck up a conversation. He was getting a degree in piano performance. I was interested to hear what he was working on.
We arrived after dark and began the mission of finding a place to stay. Our first choice, The Bearded Monkey, only had a mattress on the floor to offer. La Liberdad, just across the way, at least had a bunk. We opted for this crowded hostel with an open courtyard and hammocks.
Granada is certainly a tourist town. Everywhere you look there are white people with packs on their backs and flip-flops on their feet. At times I feel out of place that I don´t own such footwear, except for when Í´m taking a showers down here. Hostels seem to abound, along with people on street corners to change your money for you. And if you want a hot dog, there are just as many vendors around the city here as there might be in Central Park, NYC.
It was a lovely town, but I can´t say that it fascinated me. There were some nice old churches to walk through (I had a conversation with an older gal from Wisconsin there) and the city goes right up to Lake Nicaragua, with an absolutely filthy park one can walk through for a few Cordobas, the Nicaraguan currency. Never in my life have I seem people playing and out enjoying a Sunday afternoon among such garbage. We stopped to buy ice cream and found out why. There doesn't seem to be a single trash bin in the entire park.
I spent two nights in Granada, and come Monday afternoon was more than ready for the four hour ferry ride out into Lake Nicaragua to get to the Island of Ometepe. The island is basically two volcanoes that have come together do to the lava flow which has cooled between them. One of them is active, while the other has been asleep for quite some time.
Again arriving after dark, I got a taxi into the nearest town for the night. Altagracia was just a quick stop though, as I was more interested in getting from the northern end of the island to the southern where the Finca Magdalena Ecological Farm was. This is where I would be staying for the next two days. It was and absolutely wonderful place! The rickety, and I mean rickety, island bus drives you to within a kilometer of the place. After walking up the hill to get the rest of the way there, all of a sudden this beautiful large house shows up along with a few other buildings. Though the rooms are very basic, the setting is absolutely lovely with a huge flower garden out front, view of the lake and the active volcano covered in clouds, and a friendly staff to wait on you. Immediately behind the house is the national preserve for the inactive Maderas Volcano. This is the one that I would be hiking.
My first day there was spent mostly relaxing, getting a good start on John Steinbeck´s East of Eden and meeting a bunch of other backpackers. Some of us made a plan to hike Maderas the next morning, so we were all in bed early for the 7AM start we had set for ourselves. Well, we got started by 8. The trail quickly turned to mud and got pretty steep at a few points. It felt good to make it into the crater where the furry of our earth had given way to forests and a muddy lake. We laid in the sun feeling proud of ourselves for about an hour before heading back down. For better or worse, we took a wrong turn and ended up coming down a completely different way that we went up, but saw something new and were never lost. We even got to walk through a few stands of banana trees!
One of the guys I met is an Australian who is now living in Calgary, Canada. He is driving a Jeep from the Arctic Ocean of Alaska all the way to the southern tip of Argentina. He has been driving for seven months now and has had one hell of an experience, with much more to come. He even has painted a map on the car hood of his jeep showing where he has been. Anyway, a few of us were all going to the same place on the island the next day, so he offered us a ride. Of course we couldn´t refuse. Thank goodness I was with a few people that I liked because this next hostel, though beautiful and right on the lake, was an uptight sort of place. They had more rules than an overbearing parent, and the staff seemed less than friendly. But it was a day for relaxation and that is what I did. Laying on the dock getting some sun and a dip or two in the lake along with more of my book was a fine way to recover from hiking the mountain.
Now I´m back in Managua and waiting for tomorrow morning when I will be up by 3 in the morning to get ready to board the bus going back up to Honduras. I will meet up with Tezra and some of her friends for the night (it is her last day volunteering tomorrow, so there will be a party for the departing volunteers) and we will head out the next day for Guatemala. I´m looking forward to it.
I've spent the past few days in Northern Honduras at a place called Copan Ruinas. It´s a town that seems to have been specifically designed to house the tourists, as well as the industries that meet tourist´s needs, who are coming to visit the ancient Mayan city of Copan. The Copan Ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in my opinion it doesn't take much time there to figure out why.
It took most of the day to get there from Tegucigalpa, and I didn't arrive until after dark. I actually had about a 20 minute conversation in Spanish with my seat partner, which made me feel good about myself. He was understanding of all my mistakes and told me that speaking was the only way that I would learn. In the end, I must have done OK, because he was the one who kept asking the questions.
I met a British girl named Jenna upon exciting the bus, and we walked up from bus station up into the town together. After dropping our packs in the dorm of the Green Apple Hostel, we went out and had some food, sitting next to a table of Swedish study abroad students. It seems to be pretty universal that females study abroad more than males, as there was not a single male student in their group. Jenna and I ended up having a lot in common, and conversation flowed easily from one subject to another. She had been a corporate lawyer for several years before deciding to backpack for a year. Her ultimate goal was to make it to Cambodia to volunteer doing human rights law for several months. We would spend the majority of the next two days together touring, eating, and getting to know other backpackers.
After a good nights sleep and morning cup of coffee, we set out for the short walk to the actual Copan archaeological site. Not knowing much about this place before arriving, I was absolutely blown away! There were so many ancient structures, temples, steleas, and reliefs all over the manicured grounds. It is hard to even know where to start explaining everything that we saw. The temples are basically built like step pyramids, but the lawn is covered with statues that were commissioned by the Mayan rulers (with funny names like 18 Rabbit). There are also tunnels that have been excavated, and they are finding temples under temples, some of which are still standing. Maybe it is because it is so fresh, but I was more impressed with this sight than with the Pyramids of Egypt. Or maybe it is because the sight is so large, and I wasn't having to fight off people trying to sell me things. The guards just left you alone!
The following day was filled with nothing in particular. Some really great Canadians and a German man who had been working as a medical student in Guatemala City moved into the dorm. We all hit it off and ended up cooking supper together. We also had a good joke of all five of us being basically six feet tall or more. In a place where most people are shorter, we felt like a tour group of giants going around buying or supplies for that evening.
After a full day on the bus, I am now back in Tegus. Tezra will meet up with me tomorrow for a day, and then Saturday it is off to Nicaragua for a full week!
