Nellieoc

Made my way across the Guatemalan border again this time into Belieze. Arrived in belieze city (no longer the capital since a hurricane hattie hit in the 60's and they relocated the capital to Belmopan) anyway not a very nice city so on the boat straight to Caye Caulker a little paradise island off the coast. It's a really chilled out island full of the Garifuna people who are decendants of the west African slaves originally brought to central America. They are a really cool race very chilled out, dreadlocks and listening to reggae music and super friendly speaking African English ( essentially an island full of bob marleys really. I managed to spend the most of a week here sitting at the beach, watching sunsets, exploring the island and not alot else. The island has ... read more

Left the island and amazingly made it all the way to Copan. It was another 12 hour boat and bus day bit at least it was only one.  Two nights is all I stayed here but you could easily get sucked in. It's a very pretty town only 10k from the Guatemalan border and alot less touristy than most places I've been. I was surprised considering the Mayan ruins are the main attraction.  Arrived around 7pm and found a hostel straight away and found out the national park is 1k from the town so no tours necessary just a stroll out of town and pay the entrance fee. Armed with all the necessary info I headed for food and a wander around the town.  Next morning I headed to the ruins and they were just stunning. ... read more

Left the lovely Lago Atitlan and headed back via Antigua to what we have been told is the highlight of Guatemala, a little town called Lankin in order to visit Semuc Champey - and wow were we not disappointed. The 12 hour journey 11 of which were quiet pleasant but the last hour was through a dirt road (road is stretching it a little) in the pitch black bouncing up and down in the back of a minivan which was not made for these roads not that this deterred our driver. Finally we arrived in the dark to a little hostel in the middle of the hills with plenty of charm. Following morning I was totally blown away by the view from our room we really were in the middle of the highlands and it was ... read more

Headed off on my mammoth journey north again. Leaving Granada to Managua from there across the border to hondorus and another cross back out to Elsalvador stopped in San Salvador over night and left again out of Elsalvador and on to Guatemala city which is to be avoided so for me straight to Antigua a beautiful town overlooked by a huge volcano (Pacaya). Not much fun in a two day bus journey with 6 Borders included but arrived safe and sound but very tired. Spent Sunday checking out this beautiful city just walking through the cobbled streets and getting my bearings and also organising the week ahead. 9am Monday morning Spanish school stared for a week. 4 hours a day for five days and what a culture shock. First cause it's back to a routine, second ... read more

Left Bocas and headed to the CostaRican border - and what a border crossing it was. First of all on the way we past hundreds of acers of banana plantations and it turns out pretty much every banana we have ever eaten comes from this reigon the biggest employer here is Chiquita and there are also heaps of distribution points for "DelMonte fruits" as well. Ok back to the border crossing, arrived and all you see is this big massive old rickety bridge with a track in the centre for trains, it looks too old to walk across not to mind take a train!! So we got stamped out of panama walked the bridge (most of the time seeing the water below through missing planks) and into CostaRica - 1st border cross done, piece of cake!! ... read more