AlanOK

I decided to spend more time in Nicaragua and sacrifice the pricier Costa Rica and Panama. The bus from the Costa Rican border to San Juan (CR capital) got me into the city at the dreaded after dark slot. I tend to favour night buses as you save one night´s accomodation and get into the city... read more

Ometepe is a volcanic island in the middle of the big lake in Nica. There are actually 2 volcanos on it and it is a really pretty place. Hiked up a Volcan Concepcion with 2 Canadians and a guide who spent a few years in Las Vegas during the civil war as his father was a sniper in the Sadinistas, but didnt survive the war. On the walk up we saw howler monkeys, white faced monkeys (apparently got their from pirate ships back in the day, these are the monkeys on pirates of the carib), hawks and other fauna. Next day was for kayaking near Merida which was good. ... read more

Arrived in Leon, still sickly but after 2 days my body was able to hold on to some solids and liquids which so I got in on the free beer and cockfighting on the afternoon of our arrival. Cocks fight whenever they are put together so owners cut off the left foot nail that they use to hurt eachother. For cockfighting, they put a small blade on the birds and let them go at it. It just looks like a lot of flapping around until the white feathers turn red and the owners start sucking blood from their faces so that they can breathe. We were told that only 1 in 10 fights end in the bird dying, but 3 out of the 5 bouts ended in a kill. Leon is the liberal city of Nica ... read more

Lake Atitlan is renowned as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, and Aldous Huxley famously wrote of it: "Lake Como, it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing." It is surrounded by volcanoes on all sides and has a scattering of Mayan villages on its borders. During the Guatemalan civil war, the lake was the scene of many terrible human rights abuses, as the government pursued a scorched earth policy. Indigenous people were assumed to be universally supporters of the guerrillas who were fighting against the government, and were targeted for brutal reprisals. First trivia that I picked up from a threesome of older American hippies waiting for the small ... read more

Antigua was the original capital of Guatemala until the citizens got tired of having to rebuild the city after numerous earthquakes in the late 1700s and moved to what is now Guatemala City. Prior to Antigua the capital was at another site ruined by a big mudslide in the 1500s and so Guatemala City is probable on borrowed time. The trip from Tikal was on a local long distance bus with a nervous Swede sitting in front of me how didn´t like the idea of overnight buses which are more prone to being robbed. Taking a day bus to Guatemala City would get you there in the evening, which is not a good idea, so the night bus was the lesser of two evils. What I did see of Guatemala City was a sprawling, single-story and ... read more