Blogs from Central America Caribbean - page 2101

All Saints Day and an incredible hangover after last night´s Halloween celebration...We thought it might be a great idea to go to Santiago and see the festival of All Saints Day. Two chickenbus rides later we found ourselves in the middle of a celebration on a graveyard. Us lutherans are used to that graveyards are quiet and dark and a little sad places, so boy were we surprised to different relationship the guatemalans have with their ancestors! A guatemalan man we met, told us that the indigenous population communicate with their ancestors through flying bright coloured kites on All Saints Day. The graves were painted in different colors and there were children running and laughing everywhere and it was truly a happy occasion. Families had picnics on the graves (which I personally wanted to see after ... read more

Sean: Words are almost inadequate to describe the feeling yesterday as we finally reached the top of one of the tallest temples in the Mayan Kingdom and glimpsed the view from above the jungle canopy. Staring out over the dense growth we saw two thousand years worth of history in the other temples of Tikal poking through. Along with the cacophony of monkeys and birds hollering back and forth it truly gives the place an ancient feel. We were definitely not in Kansas anymore. We had such an amazing day. We left Flores at the crack of dawn so that we could get to the ruins an hour away before the heat started in earnest. When we got there the place was surprisingly empty, but we decided skirt the “Gran Plaza” and head all the way ... read more

Last saturday, after a good breakfast by the lake in Flores wondering where to head next, the owner of our hostel came with this great offer to us: he could arrange transport to the airport in Flores, flight to Guatemala City and transport from Guatemala City to Antigua for only 40US$!! After asking around a little and finding out that this wasn´t anything strange as it´s lowseason and hurricane-season and everything, we decided to take the offer. Of course the plane was a small 14 passenger local plane but the local assured us it was "segurísimo"! And so it was! Only three hours after leaving Flores we arrived in Antigua, having travelled from one side of the country to the other, instead of a 11 hours bumpy busride.... The driver that took us from Guate to ... read more

We're sorry Costa Rica, we didn't have enough time to devote to you, we had to make it to Panama in a hurry and, since you seem to be one of the easiest countries to get to in Central America, you'll be first on our list when we return to this part of the world. Fortuna was our first night's stop, not a bad little town it has a ski resort feel about it and is dominated by the imposing silhouette of Volcan Arenal, Central America's most active. It had taken us five hours, and about eight police inspections, to drive from the border, we arrived after dark and had to leave early in the morning so there was little time for us to explore. Even so, as we passed numerous expensive looking houses with large, ... read more

If they were going bungy jumping… I was IN, but they weren’t… so I was left to tidy up after the night before…. Until plans change, they sat waiting in the van for a good 15 mins, and came back in, and next thing you know it, Carolina and I were in the van off to Cola de Caballo with the lads. Oh yeah, the number of ‘lads’ I lived with increased for the weekend, about four of macs’ (flatmate) and chriss’ came from the US, but they were lovely boys, took short showers, slept on the couch and the airbed, didn’t eat TOO much, drunk lots. So here we were in an excursion, a 8 seater, and the boot, which I swapped with Carolina to be in, because jade’s lazy and wanted to lye down ... read more