Going solo

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Even though it's not long since I last scribbled here, I'm at a bit of a loose end this evening, so figured I'd bring you up to date with my goings on. It could be worse, I could be getting bored and breaking the Corby trouser press in the hotel room (one for the Alan Partridge fans amongst you there). After the photo disaster of my last entry, I won't be trying that again, my photos are on Facebook if you're interested.

So, I'm currently in Chiquilma near the Guatemala/ El Salvador border. Tomorrow I take on my first ever border crossing overland. Exciting times eh? I'm ploughing a lone furrow at the moment, having bade farewell to my travelling compadres after Livingston (I´ll get to that in a bit). It's been a bit of a wierd day really, as this is the first time in my 3 weeks here that I've been all by myself (And theres one for the Celine Dion fans. I know you exist, admit it.)

As the town I'm spending tonight in is not really on the tourist trail, its been noticeably cheaper than other places I´ve visited. For example, the combined cost of my meal this evening, and my private room in a hotel (which has a pool) is about 4 quid. Cashback! Eating alone is pretty damn lonely though, so I´m hoping to find somewhere with a few more people tomorrow.

Anyway, being as I´m here, here´s what I´ve been doing

Rio Dulce

So from Flores, we got a bus down to Rio Dulce. This is the town with the longest bridge in Central America fact fans. It´s a hot, humid place, with a bit of a dangerous reputation (indeed, the hostel we stayed at had seen violence just a month ago). As you might be guessing, I wasn´t particularly keen on the town itself, but while there we took a daytrip out to a place called Finca Paraisa, which I really enjoyed.

Finca is where a hot spring meets a cold river. And at this one particular point, theres a cold pool to swim in, which has a warm water waterfall falling into it. It was the first warm shower I´d had in a while. There were also some caves further up, which I wanted to go to, but we didn't have time, because we had a boat to catch!

Livingston

So to Livingston. After a boat ride down the Rio Dulce (for which we got royally ripped off) we got to Livingston. It wasn't a place I was ever intending on going, but you know, sometimes the best things happen when they aren't planned. And although I wouldn't say the best things happened in Livingston, I did enjoy it there.

Livingston is markedly different from the rest of Guatemala in that it has a large population of Garifuna, descendents of African slaves that came to settle on the Caribbean coast. It meant the place quite often had more of a feel of Jamaica about it than Guatemala. It also is home to some of the mangiest dogs I´ve ever seen. Throughout the rest of Guatemala, the dogs have seemed very well and healthy, but in Livingston they just looked ill. Sad really.

But enough about mangy dogs. You´ve come here for exciting tales of adventure, not stories of maligned hounds. And there was adventure here and there, among dollops and dollops of laziness. A good 2 hour walk along dirty beaches took us to las Siete Altares, a series of waterfalls, with pools for swimming. However, we did this the day after Finca Paraisa, which was a lot more impressive, so sadly the Altares were a little underwhelming. But there was still lovely swimming.

I also got my first ever ride in the back of a police car. But before you go thinking that three weeks away and I've turned into a wild child, I must hasten to point out that it was purely as a taxi, and at no point was I under arrest. Basically, in Rio Dulce, we met a couple of folk who had just blagged a ride in a police car. One of them, a fellow Englishman called Chris, explained that he liked to try and get free rides in whatever he could. Back in Livingston, we met these folk again, and after a couple of drinks in a bar, he arranged our police escort home. Good work I say.

Anyway, I figure thats just about it for now. I´m off for another swim in the hotel pool, before swotting up on my Spanish before El Salvador tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Stewart

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