Hot springs bar directly beneath the volcano!
After a few days of visiting some volcanos, hot springs, and relaxing on the beach, the sun and fun was over and my travel buddy Daniel was scheduled to arrive. Dont get me wrong, it actually wasnt that the fun was over, it was starting, just not every tourists dream climbing every Volcano you can in ten days. We started off easy, travelling to Nicaragua, where we stayed on a rather nice island on the biggest lake of the country, and that island, coincidentally hosted one big, bad, VOLCANO! Now we could have elected to go there to relax, do some hikes in the area, and explore the gigantic markets the island had to offer.. but volcanoes are like magnets to us..... they are there, dangerous. Slippery, volcanic rocks, bad to virtually no paths, snakes and other poisonous animals, and the odd farmer with a machete walking by at dusk or dawn, there are a lot of perils out there..., but the worst was 100% the fact that some of these volcanos we scaled were still active enough that when you did not pay attention to your footing, you easily could scorch off the soles of your shoes... yup, no sandals recommended.
We then proceeded to try to take a shortcut. I love shortcuts.... especially since they usually are long-cuts once you have reconsidered everything, because if they were shortcuts would not everyone take them? So there was two ways to go from A (island) to B (Granada), the regular but, regular boat, regular bus... appx 6h.... OR try to convince the local farmers to let you on their once-a-week banana boat heading directly to Grenada.. no buses, just a whole lot of convincing and a much longer (also 6h) boat ride.. until about 30 seconds before the boat left we were not sure we were allowed to go with, and would have lost a day since the regular boat already left... but somehow the guys had pity on us and we got to hop onboard a squeaky, crappy, broken old barge that carried probably 5 times more bananas than allowed, and the odd foreginers....
The Banana Boat, there s room at the top..
Church in Granada
The ride was great though, hanging out with Banana farmers for 6 hours was worthe the trip alone... Grenada was a good stopping point to see some of the famous central american churches, eat a LOT of rice and beans, and bag the 2nd volcano. But then it was time to go for the kill. The biggest, baddest volcano we planned to climb was described as an adventure extraordinare, and it sure was. We needed to find a taxi, bus and taxi in the middle of the night to get to the town at the base of the volcano. There, we eventually tracked down the major who supposedly knew the one guide that was (stupid?) able enough to guide us up there. So after a not very easy haggle on the guiding price we trotted on, with a 4-6h climbing time in sight. It sure started easy enough, only thing we were told to pay attention to was the snakes, and since our guide with his machete was plowing us through the densest vegetation, it was not always clear if we could if we wante to. Once we finished our bushwhacking part it was supposed to get easier. That was certainly not the case, and now we were walking up at a 40 degree angle on sliding sharp volcanic rocks... the traversing was particularly difficult and Dani eventually sprained his ACL again, not realising it at the very moment, but that was the end of our volcanic explorations for the remainder of the trip. After a hard hike up we finally made it to the top, it was amazing standing in the crator of a pretty active volcano. Sulfur smell, and the fact that one step away from our guides path would have made us pothole through the hot earth into a steaming pool of mud, made me make the decision right there. More risk, more fun, until you reach your comfort level. That was it. On the way down the guide started chatting.... he practically said no word on the way up. So apparently a few weeks back he guided this american up the volcano and on the way down he stumbled and fell, and broke a few bones and ended up in the hospital for several weeks.. great, good to know, AFTER THE FACT! :) Hey, wanna make business, gotta be smart...
Volcano Cotapeque, looking pretty tame there from the bottom...
Uppedyupupup, and it was hot!
At the top, open steam holes all around...
So that was that for hiking, and since we are not the most dedicated ruins and churches watchers, we decided to do something else fun that did not bother Dani's knee much.. diving! We both did not have the PADI certificate yet, but been diving before, so it was time to get it. Utila in Honduras was the place to get it, and so we did. A week of diving during the day (while it was raining) and drinking at night pretty much sums it up.. a good end to a good travel section with Dani. After dani left and the rains continued (4 days of heavy rains uninterrupted) I left in a hurry the first day the ferry actually left.. two days before it was canceled.
Roger, about to go underwater....
On the boat I met Annie, and decided to get out of the hurricane region towards san pedro. After all the downpour we decided to treat ourselves to some relaxing beach time on the other side of the country, where it was dry season. Traveling with someone that speaks spanish is great, it allows both people to engross themselves into conversations and one does not have to translate all the time, and during the three days that it took to get to the island we did not see another tourist. One night we went to play pool, and annie being the only girl (among about 100 guys) in the pool hall, got a little too much attention... i am already used to playing "boyfriend" for female travelers, ... once the young guys hear that the girl is already taken they leave, while the older men of about 60-70 years stuck around and taught her how to improve her pool-game, quite a funny sight!
We arrived on isla el tigre, a wonderful island that only received a very small subsection in the lonely planet travel book, fortunately... and hence was completely abandoned from tourists. In fact we saw none during the four day stay there. We took a nice apartment in a hostel and spent the days exploring the island and swimming in the ocean, watching the kids play soccer on the beach, or have a fantastic fish dish with lots of salad for roughly 2 dollars... can't beat that. What made it really that special was the lack of tourists... (I know, its hypocritical since I am one too). There are many advantages... no one spoke english, no tourist touts, just chicken buses to get there, an hitchhiking on the island to get around... obviously much cheaper to travel as well.
Watching the boys play "futbol!"
After the four relaxing days it was goodbye for us, she had to travel south, me, I needed to get to Mexico City in less than a month to finish off my travels... my cousin Christoph, who has travelled extensively across central and South America told me a while ago to go to El Salvador, and somehow i had forgotten and only because I traveled that far south with Annie did i consider going there. A lucky punch. When i left the island I already met a guy from el salvador in the bus and he helped me across the border, which was a bit of a chaotic situation, but the guy helped me quite a lot and somehow i got across. I already though I d have to bribe the border patrols, but I don't like doing that since one false move and you are in jail... bribing to get into parks is much easier...
I though it was a good start to meet such a nice guy from a country I did know nothing about... on the next chicken bus to san salvador i got to talking to an engineer from san salvador, we chatted the whole way to the city and he invited me to dinner, gave me his number and told me we should go out, so the next night I met him and two of his friends and talked all night about world politics, the country's sights and random stuff... a great experience. In the hostel I met two dutch girls, and we decided to go to cerro verde, where we found a great hostel amongst the lakeshore and the mountain range.
Out in town with the family
Another church... hey we re in central america!!
Our daily dose of relaxation at the hostel...
After a visit of the volcanic park in cerro verde and a day doing pretty much nothing but reading for 5 hours in a hammock, i decided it is time to hit the road again, and be off to tikal... tessa and iris gave me some great tips of where to go. I crossed the border to Guatemala and after an almost 6 hour busride and a walk though guatemala city i got to the bus station and within just 30 seconds made it to the very last bus towards tikal, great because that meant i could sleep in a bed that night... bad because that meant another 10 hours on a tiny bus, combining for 16h, sleeping is not that easy because people get on and off all the time, plus the occasional police checkpoint with heavily armored police searching the bus does not help either. At midnight that day I made it to Flores, found a place and crashed for the night... the next day I relaxed a bit and organized my day trip to tikal, which i did with two americans, a girl from ancorage and a guy from new york city, and we spent the day together walking the amazing maya ruins in the jungle of the tikal region.
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