Blogs from Central America Caribbean - page 1882

Engine warmed and seat belt securely fastened, I head out to get my first real taste of Guatemalan driving. The Capital is the destination, so I leave Quetzaltenango and head east, single file on the back of the Pan-American Highway that cuts through the Highlands like a serpent. Jockeying for position, I never lose attention to the lawless roads before me. Curves lead to curves, road repairs give no warning, and if I’m not alert, unmarked tumulos will catch me sleeping. Crazed manejeros own the roads and treat them like a playground, tossing caution into the wind as they attempt passes with only inches and seconds to spare. The mighty “chicken buses” yield to no one, stopping and proceeding at will, leaving clouds of diesel exhaust in their wake, terrorizing the country-side with their madness. These ... read more

From the bus station, I got a (CUC) “colectivo” taxi to my next casa particular. I had asked Débora if she knew any casas particulares in which I could stay and she arranged for me to go and stay with her “great friend” Isobel. Isobel lives near to the Universdad de La Habana with her daughter and elderly mother. They all seem very friendly. I was introduced to Juanita, Isobel’s cousin who they employ as a house keeper. I had dinner at the house, then Isobel told me that today was the anniversary of the foundation of Havana, and everyone in the town went to walk three times round an old tree around midnight to make three wishes because supposedly if you do it then, they will all come true. Well, I was travelling, and up ... read more

Guatemala: Flores and Tikal The border crossing from Belize into Guatemala was a bit interesting. They have a compulsory bribe of about 3 dollars you have to pay to be allowed across and apart from that they barely look at your passport and the actual border looks like a market. We just kinda meandered through the throng of people and were told that if anyone wanted to search our bags we would know about it… we didn’t even see one official while on the Guatemalan side of the border. Anyways, no-one was searched or shouted at so we got back on the bus and continued to Flores in Guatemala. Flores is a little tiny town built on a hill in the middle of a lake and the streets are concentric circles which made the town more ... read more

We left the Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary in the making to continue on a quest to see more of Costa Rica’s celebrated wildlife and less of its ex-pats. Santa Elena was our destination - a small town at the end of a beautiful bus ride up into the highlands. We arrived just as the sun was setting behind the hills and we headed straight to our hostel of choice - Pension Santa Elena - where we hoped to meet up again with Joe, who had left Rainsong only a few days before us. As fate would have it Joe was sat just inside the door as we walked into the packed hostel. Even though initially the receptionist said all the beds were full, she kindly worked something out for us so we could stay and we headed ... read more

Thursday the 16th we headed south on a scouting expedition for Bill's January hike up Costa Rica's hightest mountain, Mount Chirripo at 12,526 ft. According to the guide books we were to expect a three hour drive from San Jose to San Isidro de General. I don’t trust what the guide books say as they don’t take into account what you may encounter on the roads. Use them as a general idea. Our drive from San Ramon to our final destination of San Gerardo de Rivas was about a six hour drive. We encountered road work from San Ramon to San Jose that brought traffic to a dead stop, took an unexpected detour thru Cartago, stopped three more times on the hill of death for roadwork and after finally asking for directions made it up the ... read more