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Action Shot
Great control and poise.Dear Blog Readers,
The alarm was set and we groggily made it to the Tica Bus terminal at 4am in Managua which was two minutes from the sketchy hostel that we stayed at in the even sketchier area that it resided. Tica Bus is probably the most famous long distance bus journey carrier in Central America and it gets you between large cities from different countries and the higher price is paid in comfort and convenience. Our 13 hour journey took us north through the highlands of Nicaragua and a stop at the border.
The Lonely Planet tells you that the C4 agreement between Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador means that passing between these countries is free. Be warned, this is not always the case! The Nicaragua-Honduras border costs $6 to get through but the added advantage of using the Tica Bus is that everybody on board gets a bulk passport check which saves you the hassle, queuing and confusion at the border!
The bus moved up through Honduras and the most notable and surprising thing was how mountainous the country is. The poverty is self evident and the after effects of Hurricane Mitch´s destruction a few
Floaters
Too tiring to walk. years ago is still noticable. We arrived at the capital city, Tegugicalpa, at around lunchtime. Renowned as being one of the most deadly cities on the planet, the security on show was astounding. We went into a small supermarket and were greeted by an iron gate with slits in it. You had to point at what you wanted and the person behind the gate would go and get it and you paid by squeezing your arm through the slits!
We didn´t stay long thankfully and were on our way north to San Pedro Sula. The hotel we booked offered a free shuttle from the bus terminal which was great. Although we´d been apprehensive about staying in the city, the hotel was in a ridiculously posh area of town. In fact, the nearby shopping mall felt like we were in the Bullring in Birmingham. It´s a sad fact that only about 5% of the population could even dream of being able to afford to live in such a wealthy area.
We pushed on in the morning to La Ceiba - notoriously the most dangerous city in the most dangerous country in the world. The town felt very dodgy and
Nature Trail
Hiking through the nature trail taking in the sights and sounds. we never really felt comfortable walking around. The threat of mugging was tangible. Luckily we kept on our guard. Our initial plan was to go to Utilla in the Bay Islands to do some snorkelling. However, we found out that the hour long ferry to get there and back would cost us over $50 (remember the $3 ferry to Ometepe??). Furthermore, the island particularly caters for people wanting to do their PADI diving course where it is one of the cheapest places to do it in the world. Since neither of us had expressed an interest in doing the diving course, we felt that it properly wasn´t for us after seriously debating it for the day.
Instead, we planned to do some white water rafting down the Rio Cangrejal and booked ourselves on a trip with a couple of other Brits who we met the previous night. Since the rainy season hadn´t yet come up to the north of Honduras, the river level was quite low, so instead of spending the whole day rafting, we did an awesome hike up the river, clambering up rocks, jumping into the deep pools and sliding down the slippery rock faces. It was
King of the Mayans
I hope they did Communist Poses back then. such good fun. We had a brief safety session before getting cracking going down some Grade I-IV rapids down one of the most beautiful rivers in the world. It really was spectacular. The hostel had it´s own pet scarlet macaw which chatted and squawked at us every now and then. In the morning, we went and had a swim in the river just outside the hostel which had some great jumps, including and awesome 9m jump.
We left La Cieba and got on a bus to San Pedro Sula with a short stopover in the biggest bus station in Central America before catching another one to Copan Ruinas on the western border with Guatemala. The town is absolutely beautiful and we had a good wander around before eventually finding our hostel, the Iguana Azul, which was spotless and very comfortable. We hiked up to an old jail that overlooks the city where the groundsman let us in to climb up the four corner watchtowers to see the sunset.
The next day, we decided to spice a bit of culture into our lives and head to the Mayan ruins that the town is named after. We walked around the
Copan Ruinas
The central park in the beautiful town. fantastic nature trail before entering the ruins themselves. There was plenty of information in the guidebook to give us a good appreciation of what we were looking at in awe. The Great Plaza has loads of large pyramid structures and statues dotted around and the Hyroglyphic Staircase was brilliant. We climbed the Acropolis looking over the ruins and got a sense of how it would feel to be one of the rich and privilaged to be able to live in such as place at that time.
Afterwards, we got a tuk-tuk down to Las Sepulturas which is an area where the middle class scholars, astrologers and shamens would have lived. It gave a much better feel for how people lived and our guide showed us the different types of houses and structures. Laura understood almost all of the Spanish and translated wonderfully. Her Spanish is coming along really well and once in-tuned with the dialect, she´s holding plenty of conversations and putting my "Buenos Dias!" to shame. After a long day in the footsteps on the Mayans, it was time to move onto our fifth country in our Central American adventure - Guatemala!
Tink and Laura
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Tamsin
non-member comment
Wow
Your trip looks fantastic :D I bet Laura speaking Spanish is a massive help! Keep safe guys.