We were now officially on the tourist trail. We had the option of a shuttle service to get from Copan to Antigua. For US$10 each we decided to try it out. It was only a minivan (like the public ones we have been taking but everyone had a seat), full of long-legged gringos, and late to leave. At the border we requested stamps again and got unofficial looking stamps for leaving Honduras and for entering Guatemala. Others saw what we were doing and asked for the same but the immigration guys said 'No more!' obvious fed up with frivolous requests. We [View Full Entry]

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Another two buses and a minivan got us (me, Pieter and Peter) from Gracias to Copan. The first leg was by bus to Santa Rosa. There we were swamped by people trying to get us into minivans. They were fighting over our bags and Pieter had to take them back. They all said they were going direct to Copan Ruinas but really they were only going as far as La Entrada. We took a minivan which left with a bum in each seat but en route collected many more. We counted 21 adults, 4 kids and the driver. It was a [View Full Entry]

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We visited a town called Gracias. Gracias is 'Thank You' in Spanish and the town was named when explorers finally found a flat area of land for a settlement after hiking through the mountains and said 'Gracias a Dios' or 'Thank God'. It took 2 buses and a minivan to get to Gracias from Tegucigalpa via La Esperanza and San Juan. In the minivan I (Rae) sat in the front squished with the gearstick and the guys (Peter came with us from Tegucigalpa) were packed in the back. And more and more were packed in the back, crouching, perching, siting behind [View Full Entry]

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We left Perquin on the 7 am bus to Honduras. Ron had one of his guys look out for the bus that would pass in front of the hotel. It would be coming from San Miguel to Perquin then return to the turnoff for the border. When it passed on the way to the village the guy called us down to the road. And when the bus returned he signalled the driver with a curvy point north that we wanted Honduras. We tipped him as it was quite possible that without the special signal the bus would presume we wanted to [View Full Entry]

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We stayed for one night back in San Salvidor. We had requested a few days earlier the same room from Ximena's that we had before. We thought all was well but on arrival found only the crappy noisy rooms available. Not happy we went to La Estancia not far away and slept in a dorm. No one else was in our room so it was fine and Pieter spent the evening chatting with Peace Corp volunteers who favoured this hostel. One was a New York narcotics cop. The next day we caught a taxi at 5:30 am to the Terminal Oriente [View Full Entry]

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It is really funny how so many buses terminate at markets. It takes ages for the big beasts to negotiate their way through the crowded market and they spew huge amounts of black exhaust fumes contaminating the fresh produce and choking pedestrians. We encountered this in Ahuachapan, on our way to Juayua. Juayua is on the Ruta de las Flores (Route of the Flowers) and it was quite beautiful getting there. Not so many flowers but probably a little too early in the dry season for those. Lots of coffee plantations. We had a lovely view of Juayua from the main [View Full Entry]

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At the Terminal Occidente in San Salvador we had our first Pupusas. Cheese stuffed tortillas which were quite delicious. We found the bus to Santa Ana but I had trouble getting on with my backpack. Pieter had to push from behind while the bus driver pulled me up. Arriving at the market in Santa Ana after an uneventful ride we took a US$3 taxi to the Hotel Libertad. We had booked ahead but there were plenty of rooms. We had thought it was US$12 per person but it turned out to be US$12 per room. And they had bell boys who [View Full Entry]

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We decided to spend a couple of nights just north of San Salvador on a farm owned by the people who owned Ximena's, the place we stayed in San Salvador. It was called Lisa's Place. It was pleasant enough and there crops up the back to explore. But we were surprised by the collection of German Sheppards and Rottweilers around the house. They were breeding them and they had the cutest little puppies. We had a couple of objectives during our stay. The first was to see the Mayan ruins at Cihuatan. We took a bus which dropped us at the [View Full Entry]

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I was dreading today. Pieter loves a border experience but I was starting to hate them. And today we had two borders to cross. We were travelling from Managua, Nicaragua via Hondorus to San Savlador, El Salvador. The Tica bus left at 5 am and followed highway 1 to the Hondorus border at El Espino. We were not too fussed when the bus guy collected our passports and US$8 each. At least we didn't have to stand in any queues, we just hung around the bus. But we were a little horrified when we got the passports back without any stamps. [View Full Entry]

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We used Managua as a base for a couple of day trips to Old Leon and Leon. First Old Leon - Leon Viejo. We took a minibus from UCA heading to Leon for N$30 each and were dropped at La Paz Centro on the main road. We asked about the bus to Momotombo and were told it was a good 20 blocks to the terminal where the bus left from. So we took a N$100 taxi ride the 15 kms to Leon Viejo and he dropped us at the archaeological site which was on the outskirts of the village of Leon [View Full Entry]

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