¿Hablas inglés?

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Buenos!

Greetings from Central America...I know it's been a while but stop worrying, we are still alive. Traveling at quite a pace, in fact. In a little under three weeks we've made it from San Jose, Costa Rica, to the Bay Islands, Honduras, quite an achievement, we think. However, since you haven't heard from me since I left Indonesia (that seems like a long time ago...) it seems only right that I very briefly fill you in what has occurred since then. So...

From Bali I flew to Fiji via Sydney (since I saw both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from the plane on the way in I'm tempted to include Australia in my list of countries visited...Simon unsurprisingly disagrees). I'm sure you're aware, since I probably mentioned it last time, that Fiji was mine and Simon's agreed meeting place. For whatever reason, I arrived about a day ahead of him, and so I had an anxious 24 hours hanging around the hostel, nervously waiting. Would he arrive safely? Would we still be friends when he did? What if he'd made some new friends in New Zealand and didn't want to travel with me any more? Knowing Simon, I should have realised that this last possibility was highly unlikely - still, when he got out the taxi and walked into the hostel quite alone, I was somewhat relieved.

In hindsight, I could really have done without the stress of that first day in Fiji...that is to say, the next week had more than enough worrying and pressure involved in it, without adding to my burden that first night. For example, this was a fairly typical scene from that week:

(Chris and Simon are lying on a perfect white sand beach, having just finished swimming in the warm, crystal clear ocean. Simon is listening to music, Chris is reading)

Chris: What's the time, Si?
Simon: Not sure...about twelve?
Chris: Lunch?

Repeat for the next six days.

Fortunately, this hellish existence was over after a week - honestly, I don't know how we could have avoided heart attacks any longer. From Fiji, we flew to Los Angeles for all of twelve hours, before heading onwards to San Jose. However, this journey was massively complicated by the fact that we flew over the International Date Line, with the result that we landed in LA around half a day before we left Fiji. So this year I have had two May 22nds. Sound mental? Yeah, it was. The long and the short of it was that after leaving a cold LA (never believed I'd think 20 degrees was cold) we arrived in Costa Rica incredibly jet lagged. Simon managed to last most of that day. I, however, crashed at around two in the afternoon and promptly slept for eighteen hours straight. Fun times.

And so began our Central American journey. San Jose to Mexico City in eight weeks seemed ambitious though, as things stand, we're making good time. Costa Rica was an easy place to start - fairly developed, with a good level of English, though somewhat expensive. The highlight here was definitely the hot springs we visited near the Arenal volcano - standing under a piping hot waterfall and water sliding into a splash pool the temperature of a bath was bizarre but a lot of fun. And for me, after almost ten weeks without any kind of hot water in SE Asia, most welcome.

After Costa Rica, we crossed into Nicaragua, eventually spending about a week here, as we had in Costa Rica. Nicaragua was certainly the more 'authentically' Central American of the two, and significantly cheaper. We climbed a volcano (inactive), visited a couple of historical, colonial towns and then tobogganed down another volcano (active). Racing Simon down a steep mountain of ash while sitting on a thin wooden board was a lot of fun, if a little painful. I won, in case anyone was interested.

This 'Volcano Boarding' seemed like a good way to end our time in Nicaragua and so we headed straight for where we are now - Honduras' Bay Islands. Not a simple journey, it eventually took us a little over two days, at least eight buses, two taxis and a boat. Still, we're suddenly a lot closer to Mexico and have plenty of time to get into the Caribbean lifestyle. Having already been here for two days, we expect to spend at least another four or five nights taking it easy. Oh, and we'll be doing some diving as well, which is very exciting.

And the title of this blog? Essentially, it refers to the sum total of Spanish that myself and Simon are capable of saying competently. My attempts at actual dialogue normally come out as an incomprehensible mix of Spanish, French and English. With, from I don't know where, the odd Bahasa Indonesian word thrown in for good measure. Needless to add, hand gestures have been very important so far in Central America.

Another long one, I'm afraid, though it honestly wasn't supposed to be. Keep reading, I'll write again in a couple of weeks.

Chris.

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Comments

[Lorraine]

20 Degrees - Yeah We Wish!
Hi Chris - at last a blog and worth the wait 'cos it has made me chuckle! Of course finding the time to write and keep us up to date must be difficult - what a hectic schedule you boys are keeping - especially in Fiji! All going great by the sounds of things but I am sorry to say that if you think 20 degrees is cold wait till you get back to Wales - we would love 20 degrees! Still not much summer weather happening here and now we have rain but that figures cos the tennis starts on Monday! Enjoy the next four weeks and keep blogging (not sure if you linked this on facebook though). Have fun and stay safe, take care in Mexico. Love from Lorraine x