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The last leg of this 28990 mile trip (I have this figure memorised because I bought a 29,000 mile ticket - 11 more miles and I would have had to buy a ridiculously expensive 39,000 mile ticket!).
For all those of you that have managed to stick through my previously crazy long blogs, please take the time to pat yourself on the back. I recently had the chance to look back at them and can only apologise for my verbal diarrhea. I'll try and keep this one nice and short for two reasons:
1) You've probably got better things to be getting on with this bank holiday
2) I'll be home in two weeks to bore you in person. All beware the dreaded scrapbook that I'll be putting together.
Having spent 6 weeks training as a ski instructor in Canada, and somehow qualifying, I was just about ready for some warmer weather...hello Cancun!
I got to Mexico at the beginning of March and met up with my GAP Adventures tour group. For those of you who don't know, meeting a backpackers group can be a make or break moment on your travels. Groups can vary from
big, small, old, young, boring, fun, and just downright strange. The last time I did something like this was in Thailand 3 years ago with Jay and Rupa (bro/sis), and 3 other female travellers:
- A Brit so boring that I can't remember her name
- An Aussie called Bronwyn who we renamed Bronwhinge...enough said
- A Canadian called Candice who introduced herself by saying "Hi, I'm Candice and I spent my student loan on a boob-job"
Thankfully, there were no such oddities this time round...our 16-strong group consisted of a pleasant mix of Aussies, Brits, Dutch, German, Americans, and 6 Norwegian girls. And because of them I had a absolutely awesome time.
After a couple of days in Mexico we all realised that our Spanish needed some serious work (Oi Amigo, I'll have 2 Coronas por favor... etc) This Central American malarky was going to be difficult (devoted blog readers may have noticed that every other country I've been to speaks English). But we crossed the border into Belize and suddenly all the little moustachioed fellas called Carlos and Juan were replaced by big black guys called Courtney and LeRoy. Strange?
Belize is in fact
a former British Colony in the middle of Latin America. Woohoo...I can talk English again, or so I thought. Belizean English is incomprehendible...I think it has to do with the chilled out Caribbean vibe.
For example the Belizean for "What time is it?" is "How much o'clock, mon?". To which the answer will invariably be something silly like "Its Rum-Thirty, mon." (Speaking of Rum, its lucky Belize has plenty of it because the beer is God-awful!)
We only spent a few days in the country, but Belize is definitely one of my favourites on this whole trip. The uber-chilled and friendly island of Caye Caulker, the amazing Mayan Caves near San Ignacio and the incessant Bob Marley Greatest Hits that plays EVERYWHERE (restaurants / bars / clubs / buses / cars / shops) mean that I've forever been recommending it to other travellers.
The third and final country of the tour was stunning Guatemala. We visited the amazing Mayan ruins of Tikal and swam in boiling hot waterfalls in Rio Dulce before heading to the gorgeous Lake Atitlan. The only catch is that we were travelling between the amazing sights on Guatemalan chicken buses (former American school-buses
repainted and then driven to scare the crap out of you)
The 17 day tour came to an end in Antigua Guatemala, the original Spanish capital of the whole Continent, and also Latin America's most popular spot for learning Spanish. Absolutely coincidentally, I arrived in Antigua at Easter...the city just happens to go crazy for Easter week, with tourists coming from around the world to see the parades and processions.
I said goodbye to the group, and moved in for a month with a local family organised by my Spanish school. My Guatemalan mum, Monica, is one of the sweetest people I've ever met, and she amazingly managed a household of 16 people (in a pretty small house!), not to mention the 3 dogs, 2 birds, rooster and bunny rabbit. Somehow I was speaking the lingo in a few weeks.
Unfortunately, my attempts at picking up Salsa (which is all they play in the clubs there...if you can´t beat them, join them!) were not so successful. I took 3 lessons before deciding that I would need 300 before ever attempting to hit the dancefloor, and promptly gave up trying.
I intended to stick around in Antigua
to join a volunteer project, but an opportunity presented itself in Honduras. Before leaving, I did get to have the unbelievable experience of climbing an active volcano at Pacaya...something I'm sure my geography teacher once told me wasn't possible...Lies I tell you! Well, not all lies I suppose...I don't think they'd let you do anything this dangerous in any other part of the world. By mistake we spent a bit too long walking up, meaning that the lava got too close to the footpath on the way back. The only option was to run back down before it was too late. Even from 12 feet away, the 2000 degree molten was hot enough to burn the hairs on the back of my arm. (Needless to say, the picture here is taken on the way up, before all this happened!)
And here I am in the city of La Ceiba, Honduras. I got in touch with a local charity and got a free 3 week volunteer placement at a rural school outside the city (Can you believe that some of the big organisations were trying to charge me $1000 to volunteer for 3 weeks!). I missed my first day last
week because I took the wrong bus to another village with the same name by mistake...some things I guess they don't teach you at university.
The project is pretty tough work...I thought I was going to be a teaching assistant, but there's only one teacher (an 18-year-old girl) teaching 5 different grades at the same time. So we've split the class and I'm taking kindergarten and first grade in a foreign language, but the kids are really appreciative. The hardest thing is learning their names (Honduran kids have crazy long names like Carlos Antonio Fernando Sevilla - and I'm expected to say the whole thing!). The city itself is nothing special, but I've made a few friends though the local Spanish School, and I get to spend my weekends Scuba Diving in the Bay Islands...not a bad life.
Apologies again...looks like the habit of writing long blog entries is difficult to get rid of. Good news is that this is my last one, since I'm coming home in two weeks. Way back when, when I actually booked my ticket, I had a sneaky feeling that I might want to be back in England for the Champions League Final
on May 23rd. I like to think that this positive attitude is what got Liverpool there.
See you in two weeks!
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Yogi Patel
non-member comment
Pratham Blog
I enjoyed all lovely picture including that Pratham type of world champs 2020. Hope I am the Pratham (first) to write on this blog. Shyam, it was good to see you in Dallas. Yogi Patel Pratham USA Ambassador www.pratham.org