Easter week is the holiest time of year for many Catholics. Feeling very pious and loaded down with rum (beacause someone told us that booze was prohibited on Good Friday), we descended on Comayagua for the festivities. This beautiful colonial town is the best place in Honduras to witness the religious celebrations. The local people are very proud of their traditions and spend months planning detailed alfombras; sawdust carpets. The work begins on the eve of Good Friday and people work throughout the night to create incredible, coloured displays. By 9.00am the sun is beating down [View Full Entry]

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A town called thankyou Gracias, one of a series of towns on the 'Ruta Lenca'; the mountainous and indigenous zone of Western Honduras. We planned to visit the cloud forest but never foresawthat none of the four banks would have an ATM, so spent the next day retracing our steps to Santa Rosa and chasing round town looking for a machine that would work. The frustrations of Central America! Still, we made it to the hot-springs and swam around in the lovely sulphurous water, supposedly good for your skin but it doesn't half make your hair frizzy! Lucky for us, the [View Full Entry]

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Bad news for ruin buffs and good news for those a bit 'ruined-out', Copan is the southernmost city of the Mayan empire. A colony has been here for 3000 years but the founder of the famous city arrived in AD 426, a powerful shaman named Great Sunlord Quetzal Macaw. Copan grew in strength through jade trade and military power but the empire mysteriously collapsed around 900 AD. One of the most memorable Kings was the 13th: Ubak K'awil or 18 Rabbit is immortalised forever on the magnificent carved stelaes. His untimely demise was brought about by his successor Smoke Monkey who [View Full Entry]

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When you cross an international border by sea, you at least expect a substantial craft to be taking you there. Sheltering from the rain under plastic sheeting on a little fibre-glass boat, we felt like some sort of illeagal immigrants being smuggled into Belize. The customs official only stamped my passport with 15 days entry, which turned out to be more than sufficient, it is only the size of Wales afterall! Belize is not a backpacker haven, everything here is at least double, if not triple, the price of neighbouring countries. In a land comprising of only 300,000 people, there is [View Full Entry]

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This looks like the sort of place you would smuggle a cargo of cocaine or get your dirty cash laundered. Also known as Fronteras , it seems that Rio Dulce has never been able to shed it's buccaneering past. This town is technically not a fronteer but it does bridge the gap between mainland Guatemala and the Caribean coast. In the past it was an entry route for British pirates to come and steal Spanish gold. Now the inland port is a storm shelter for yachts from the seasonal hurricanes that batter this side of the world. The dirt track town [View Full Entry]

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Described by many guidebooks as 'one of the Americas' most enchanting cities'. For me it lacked the magic of Cartagena or the intrigue of Cusco and was simply a prettily-painted colonial town. Though in it's day Antigua was one of the greatest cities of the Spanish empire, governing all of Central America up to Mexican Chiapas. In 1773, after a year of constant tremors, two huge quakes brought the dynasty to a heap of dust and rubble. Antigua was abondoned and the population relocated to the present capital, Guatemala City. Only in the last hundred years have people started to return, [View Full Entry]

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This beautiful location on the eastern shores of Lake Atitlan was once a hippie haven. It is claimed to be one of the worlds' energy vortexes, alongside the great pyramids and Macchu Picchu. Nowadays the hippies have transcended into capitalists with health-food restaurants and the hawkers have moved in. This breed swarm you at restaurants and quote prices in Dollars rather than Quetzales. Walking to Santa Catarina Palopo, I caught glimpses of amazing and expensive properties on the lakeshore. Mainly owned by gringos with their private docks and lawns occupying the fertile farmland that [View Full Entry]

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The largest market in Central America, people flock here in their droves to buy crafts at hugely inflated prices. Inspecting a fluffy blanket, I was offered a starting price of 600Q and told that tomorrow (actual market day) they would be asking 1200Q. Further evidence of the abundance of dollar happy tourists was the flock of small boys that hounded me as soon as I got off the bus, offering to guide e to a hotel then chasing me around with dolls and fridge magnets, even lying in wait as I toured the museum. Another aspect of the town is it's [View Full Entry]

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All of my ancestors lived in poverty They all worked on the fincas And left nothing for their children I may live in poverty as well Bur I hope that my children can harvest The fruit of my labour here And break the circle of poverty The campesino Jose Abel. Worker in La Florida. The adventure always starts with a journey and after being squashed with seventy other people on a bus designed for school kids, it was quite a ride. I shared half a seat with two fat ladies, squashed to my other thigh across the narrow aisle, was a [View Full Entry]

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Quetzaltenango, otherwise known as Xela. Described in the Rough Guide as reminscent of an industrial town in Northern England - grey and cool with friendly down-to-earth inhabitants. 'Just like home' I thought and headed there with the intention of spending Xmas and New Year here. In reality it was pretty dull since most of Xela's inhabitants head for the lake of coast for the holiday season. I followed the crowds and headed to San Pedro for some company and sunshine. See last blog for my adventures in San Pedro Most of the city was destroyed in an earthquake , so little [View Full Entry]

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