Our Arrival The bus from Guatemala City dropped us at the bus station near the market. The town is a few minutes walk past the market stalls. Where We Stayed Hotel Posada Refugio II - Down a small street opposite the Terrace hostel on 3a Calle Poniente between Calzada Santa Lucia and 7a Avenue Norte. Q100 for a double room with private bathroom and hot showers. Kitchen available on the roof terrace. No internet but we picked up free wifi the whole time we were there. Try and get a room upstairs. Posado Vero - Down the other small street on Calle Poniente. Q80 for a room with shared bathroom. Really strong internet and a bit of a roof terrace with laundry sink. What We Did Walked around town looking at the many churches and ruins. ... read more

Our Arrival The bus dropped us off by the markets on 14a Avenue Sur and 15a Calle Poniente. We turned right through the market down 15a Calle Poniente, past a bus terminal and turned left up 10a Avenue Sur. 4 1/2 blocks up we reached out hotel. Where We Stayed Hotel Livingston - $15 for a massive double room with bathroom, cable TV, table and chairs and a sofa. Doors to the hotel lock at 10pm and open at 6am. Where We Ate There are places selling pupusas all around town and in the market. If you are after fast food head to the stalls in Parque Libertad. There are plenty of supermarkets around. What We Did Looked at the Cathedral and churches. CLIMBED SANTA ANA VOLCANO To get there head to the terminal la Vencedora. ... read more

Next we wanted to go to El Tunco beach in El Salvador. This meant from Esteli we would have to get a bus to the border with Honduras, go through Honduras and go through another border crossing into El Salvador. It looked like it would take us a couple of days to get to El Tunco so we asked at Ticabus to see how long that bus would take to see if it was worth doing. They quoted us $37 and said we would arrive in San Salvador at 5pm which would be too late to go to El Tunco that same day. As both options would take 2 days we decided to go with the chicken buses. Here is how we did it: 1. Catch a bus to Somoto. On the main highway in Esteli ... read more

Our Arrival We arrived on the Tica Bus from Panama City. The Tica bus station is in a new building in the West of the City, not near the Supreme Court as our lonely planet said. It is on Avenue 3, transvera 26 near the other bus stations in the North West. There is a Tica Hotel in the bus terminal. We needed to book our TransNica bus to Mangua for the following day so we walked a couple of blocks to do this and the new Tica location was a lot handier. Where We Stayed Hotel el Dorado - just around the corner from the TransNica bus terminal on Avenue 5 Calle 22 Frene al Bar Pecos Bill. $24 for a double room with bathroom, hot showers and TV. We had a bus at 5am ... read more

Our Arrival The ferry dropped us off one street back from the park in the middle of town. Where We Stayed Hotel Cayo Zapatilla - on the SW corner of the park. $25 for a double room with TV and bathroom with hot water showers. Hotel had a kitchen, communal balconies and good internet. We were on the 3rd floor and it worked well in our room. There is cheap laundry available. Apparently Bocas Del Toro is a big weekend destination and when we arrived on a Saturday afternoon a lot of places were full. What We Did Walked to the beaches on the East side of the island. Playa Bluff has a couple of bars/restaurants at the end of the road and big waves. It is a long walk of about 11kms. You can rent ... read more