Nicaragua is lovely! I think it is one of my favourite countries so far! The weirdest thing is seeing all sorts of Xmas decorations and trees being sold in sunny streets- very bizarre! The weather has been amazing everyday- sometimes it's uncomfortably hot just walking in the street! Have been eating a lot of rice and beans! Yum, I love it! In Nicaragua they cook it together with onions and spices and call it 'gallo pinto'. Leon and Granada are both colonial towns, so they are really pretty to walk round. There are squillions of churches and cathedrals here, including the [View Full Entry]

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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........... arrived 2 days ago in country number 5- Nicaragua. The border crossing from Honduras to here was completely crazy! Luckily I was travelling with quite a few other tourists otherwise I think I´d have been completely overwhelmed. As soon as our minibus started pulling up, there were about 20 men that started flinging themselves at the bus, trying to open the windows, all shouting trying to get us to change money with them. They climbed on top of the bus to get our rucksacks and put them in their vehicles (weird bikes with carriages) before we even had a chance [View Full Entry]

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Well, this is my first blog in a while! After spending 5 and a half weeks in Guatemala, I decided to miss out El Salvador and make my way to Honduras. After being in Guatemala for the end of the rainy season and enjoying a few weeks of fab weather, I assumed the same would apply for Honduras. Unfortunatley not! Since I arrived over a week ago there has only been one day without any rain! I started off my Honduran adventure in a town near the border called Copan Ruinas, which is famous for.......ruins!!!!! These were the most expensive ruins [View Full Entry]

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One thing that I forgot to mention in my last blog entry was that I've had my first bit of bad luck- I had my purse stolen from my bag when I was on a chicken bus last week. It didn´t have much money in it but it had my memory card in it, with all my photos from my first 6 weeks travelling. Stupidly, I kept putting off getting the photos onto a disc. Oh well, that´s life. It wasn´t my camera, passport or credit cards, so I guess I´m quite lucky. It has taught me a lesson to be [View Full Entry]

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Well I arrived at the highland town of Quetzaltenango a few days ago expecting it to be freezing, and although it is pretty chilly in the evenings the days have been lovely and warm- yey!!! No-one actually calls this town by its proper name- everyone calls it Xela (shay-la). No idea why!!! During the past few days I´ve been bumping into loads of different people that I´ve met in different places in Guatemala, which has been really nice. I´ve been to a football game (yes I know, very unlike me!), hot springs and a crazy church that was painted in garish [View Full Entry]

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After a few relaxing days by the lake I returned to Antigua for the celebrations that they hold in a nearby town on November the 1st (All Saints Day). Traditionally, Guatemalan people go to graveyards and fly kites so that the spirits know how to find their way back to their bodies and their family, and to also ward off evil spirits. So today I ventured to a town called Santiago Sacatepequez to see this annual occurance. It was really good- the kites are all homemade out of tissue paper and some of them are absolutely massive!!! The really big ones [View Full Entry]

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After my week of spanish school I decided to travel to another lakeside town to chill out for a few days. There wasn´t much in Santa Cruz, but there was a really good social hostel called ´La Iguana Perdida´ where I met lots of nice people and had lots of fun! It was similar to other hostels that I´ve been in where everyone eats together in the evening, so you get to know the other guests and staff really well. They have a big fancy dress room there, and every Saturday night they have a party where the men dress up [View Full Entry]

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Aargh! My brain is hurting because I´ve just finished my second week at Spanish School. This school was definitely more relaxed then my last one. Lessons take place under palapas in a garden, and this morning I spent an hour of my lesson swimming in the lake with my teacher. I´m still not by any means a Spanish genius, but I do know a lot more and can actually use the past tense now (kind of!). No more ¨Yesterday I go to the beach¨for me! I can actually make a bit of sense when I speak now! Woo hoo! This week [View Full Entry]

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I can´t believe that I haven´t written about buses in Guatemala before now. I was spoilt by the nice (albeit expensive and cold) buses in Mexico with reclining seats, tvs and tickets that are printed out with your name and seat number. Guatemala is soooooooooo different. The majority of buses are called ´chicken buses´. They are actually old US school buses that have been painted really bright colours. The ones I´ve been on so far have been packed, smelly and take 100 hours because they stop every 10 minutes. There are also lots of minibuses that shuttle between various towns. They [View Full Entry]

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Hill climbing? Check. Mountain climbing? check. Temple climbing? Check. Pyramid climbing? Check. Volcano climbing?..................... Aha, one thing missing off my activity list before I have some self-deserved lazy days! The town where I am now (Antigua) has 3 volcanoes which you can see from the town centre, but none have been active recently. Volcan Pacaya is over an hours drive from Antigua, but it is the only one where you can see real, proper, scary, massively hot lava! It takes an hour and a half (boo!) to hike up to where the volcanic rock is. There are little kids that hire [View Full Entry]

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