Alejandro Contreras
Born and raised in Guatemala City, spent 3 years of my childhood in Caracas (Venezuela). Many years later, got a masters from UVA (Charlottesville, VA), and moved to Brazil, where I lived for 7 years (zig-zagging between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro). Among other things, I'm an avid reader and enjoy photography. Currently living in San Salvador, El Salvador.contreras_alejandro
Travel Blog Posts
A new trip ... starting in Copán
Published: May 12th 2008Central America Caribbean » Honduras » Western » Copán Ruinas
March 30th 2008
NOTE: this is the first entry of a new set of entries related to a multi-country trip from March to May of 2008. Honduras My main goal was to visit Roatán, the Hondurean Caribbean island. I knew, though, that just taking a plane from San Salvador to Roatán would be too easy, too little adventurous. So I decided to drive. Actually, my first thought was “not-to-fly”. The plan was to drive from San Salvador to Copán, then San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, and take the ferry to Roatán. Since I did not have time to spend a night on the road on the way back, this meant I would have to drive maybe 9 hours on my return, and I decided against it. At the end, I drove from San Salvador to Copán, spent a night ... read more
Lava Rivers in Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala
Published: August 21st 2006Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Capital Region » Pacaya
August 13th 2006
First of all, I am no volcanologist. So, bear with me, because I might use the wrong technical words for what I saw... The Pacaya volcano is an active volcano located approximately 30 km South of Guatemala City. Its summit is at 2552 mt. It is considered a "stratovolcano", which means it is tall, conical, has periodic, explosive eruptions, its lava is highly viscuous, cool and hardens before spreading too far (out of shame for writing something way too wrong, I just got this from Wikipedia). After approx 100 inactive, Pacaya erupted in 1961 and has pretty much been active since then. Its active cone is called the MacKenney cone, and its located on the SW of the volcano. Until this year, there was another crater, called "Cerro Chino", to the NW of the volcano. This ... read more
April 13th 2005
April 11th, Day Four Yesterday, after settling into the hotel in Bonito (around 6 PM), I had enough time to think and decide what to do in the 3 or 4 days that I plan to stay here. Bonito has a relatively sophisticated touristic "ecosystem". It seems to be very hard to book a trip to any of the attractions without the support of a local tour agency. Agencies act as client relationship managers and help tourists understand what every attraction has (and has not) and book them for them. Bonito has also a good cohort of Tour Guides. These are trained individuals (accredited with Brazil's tourism agency - I think its called Embratur) that usually meet the tourists at the agency and take them (or join them if the tourists have a car, as ... read more
The beginning of a driving solo trip through the Brazilian Outback
Published: March 26th 2006South America » Brazil » São Paulo
April 8th 2005
Written in March '06, this is an account of a 8000 km (5 K miles) long trip I did in April'05 through the Brazilian Midwest. It all started in Rio de Janeiro and finished, well, in Rio de Janeiro. I drove all the way from Rio, through Sao Paulo, to the Mato Grosso do Sul state, where I visited a place called Bonito; a few days later I drove north to the Mato Grosso state, where I spent some time in the northern area of Pantanal and in Chapada dos Guimaraes; I then drove East to the Goias state, where I visited Chapada dos Veadeiros and the Terra Ronca national park; finally, I drove south, crossed the Minais Gerais state, visited colonial city Ouro Preto and got back to Rio de Janeiro. I took many pictures ... read more
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