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Published: July 29th 2008
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Though I nearly managed to miss my plane because I was waiting at the wrong gate, I made it to Guatemala City on Wednesday. I wasn´t too impressed - it seemed like a bit of a dump! I also reckon that Guatemala City has the loudest buses in the world and unfortunately they seemed to like driving past my window all night.
On Thursday morning I´d barely set foot out of my hostel when I was shepherded onto a bus going to Chiquimula by a man who seemed to be in a hurry. Sadly I still had to wait over an hour for the bus to set off and the journey took a lot longer than it was supposed to because it kept stopping. Someone brought an actual live chicken onto the bus which made my day. In Chiquimula I switched buses to get to Anguiatu which took fricking ages because of the number of detours we took. He also kept packing more people into it even though it was already more than full. But I eventually got to El Salvador border where I got another bus to Metapan and then switched buses again to get to Santa Ana. So
four buses in total!
There wasn´t really much to see in Santa Ana but I´d only gone there for the nearby volcanoes anyway. On Friday I got a bus to the Parque Nacional Cerro Verde where there are three volcanoes, two of which you can climb. The scenery there was really impressive, especially Volcan Izalco which is the one I climbed. There were loads of school kids there so it wasn´t very peaceful but at the start of the walk I met Mike from Kansas, Christian from Santa Ana, Tom from the Netherlands and his girlfriend who was also from Santa Ana. I ended up spending the day with them - it was nice to have some company! Towards the top of the volcano there were vents with really hot steam coming out them which was pretty scary! And there were some really weird insects at the top including a beetle that was huge.
After we´d come down from the volcano we drove to a lake near the park in Christians car where we had dinner on a pier. It was a spectacular setting and there´s no way I´d have found it if I´d been on my own!
Volcan Izalco Crater
I thought it was a good idea to go and stand in the crater for a photo until I realised that the steam coming out of the vents really is hot! I only spent a couple of days in El Salvador but had a good time there and really liked the people. Most people I talked to there were really friendly and seemed to have a great sense of humour. And their bottled water doesn´t taste strange.
On Saturday I set myself a new record and managed to reach my next destination on a total of six buses. The first three took me back to Chiquimula in Guatemala, via Metapan and Anguiatu. At Chiquimula a guy decided he was going to carry my bag for the whole 20 feet to my next bus and he wouldn´t shut up about my compass and kept wanting me to give it to him (I didn´t of course). The next bus was supposed to take me to El Florido but about halfway there I think the driver decided he couldn´t be bothered going any further so he made us change to another bus which was already full of people packed in like sardines. The driver kept letting more people get on so that people were practically sitting on top of each other. Some old guy next to me started chatting and at first
I thought he was just being friendly but then he kept asking me for a dollar and he wouldn´t shut up about it - I don´t mind giving money to people when I think they really need it but this guy was just annoying me and it´s not like I keep a spare stash of dollars to give to anyone who asks for one. Later on I don´t know what scam they were trying to pull but suddenly the man started trying to grope me while the woman sitting on my other side starting asking me loads of questions as though she was trying to distract me. It was really weird. At the Honduran border I had to pay "extra charges" both to leave Guatemala and to enter Honduras though I shouldn´t have had to pay anything. From there it was just one more bus to Copan Ruinas.
Yesterday I went to see the Mayan ruins at Copan which were pretty decent and in a really nice setting. While I was there I met Gemma and Leanne from England and Cristelle from France. Gemma and Leanne had to go to Antigua at around midday but I went on a
Beetle in Volcan Izalco Crater
It was actually bigger than it looks here, I think it´s the perspective because it was actually a *monster*. "nature trail" walk with Cristelle and in the afternoon we had a few drinks and then went for dinner in the evening.
Today I´ve been feeling a bit sick all day and it didn´t help that I´ve spent 7 hours on buses! This morning I intended to go all the way to Tegucipalpa, the capital, via San Pedro Sula, but on the way to San Pedro I changed my mind and decided to go to the Bay Islands (Roatan) first to learn to dive (and hopefully do a bit of sunbathing too!). It´s going to be pretty expensive because I don´t think there are any really cheap hostels but it´s meant to be one of the best places to learn to dive so I might as well while I´m here.
So from San Pedro I came to La Ceiba which is on the coast. It´s really hot and humid here and my hostel is like a furnace so it´s not particularly pleasant! Not sure whether I like Honduras that much so far - the women seem to scowl at me a lot while the men prefer to stare, hiss and make stupid comments! I´m hoping things while be
a bit nicer on the Bay Islands because perhaps they´ll be more used to tourists(?).
Apparently the internet is insanely expensive on Roatan so if I disappear off the radar for a week or so then don´t be alarmed!
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