Poneloya, Nicaragua

June 23-24

Dave, Sahil, Aaron and I made the short journey to Las Peñitas, a very small beach town just outside of Leon, upon the recommendation that the Surfing Turtle hostel was the best hostel in all of Nicaragua. It is very secluded- getting there involved a bus, a boat and a walk. The hostel has a turtle hatchery...but of course it's the wrong time of year, so no turtles while we were there! 

We spent the afternoon playing an assortment of card games and a bit of beach volleyball. 

The sunset was pretty spectacular! 

When the stars came out they were equally spectacular! I don't think I've ever seen so many stars in the sky.

In the evening Sahil and Aaron returned to Leon and Dave and I headed to a 'beach party' at a nearby hostel. I say nearby...but getting there involved a ride on a horse & cart, a boat and then a half hour walk! Like I said, this place is secluded... We also stopped along the way to do a little skipping with some local kids on the street. Fun! The party was also great fun, but the ridiculous journey each way was what really made the night!

Leon, Nicuragua

June 19-24

A ten hour bus through Honduras landed me in Leon, a small city in the north of Nicaragua.

Upon arriving and finding that no dorms were available, I bunked up in a private room with a few Canadian guys I'd met on the bus. We spent the evening exploring some local bars.

The next day I discovered the hostel's two pet turtles and spent most of the morning playing with them! Cuties!

I also explored the town. To be honest, it's not the nicest city. There are some colourful streets and pretty churches, but not much else. It's like Antigua but much busier and less picturesque. 

I found a market that had just about everything you could possible want or need; fruit, meat, clothes, souvenirs, street food, you name it! However it also stank real bad. I ate the most delicious Nicaraguan-style enchilada (and have since had one pretty much every day!)

Our hostel has a 'sister hostel' about half an hour away on a beach called Las Peñitas. On Saturday night they hosted a big beach party! We hopped on a bus with just about every single person from the hostel and partied the night away in the ocean, the pool and the dance floor. Lots of mischief, awesome fun!

Running on about 2 hours sleep we bravely attacked a canyon the next day! The four hour drive there provided some much needed rest. Upon arriving at Somoto Canyon we met our guide, Ronaldo, who was fantastic! He didn't speak any English so it was a perfect opportunity to practice my Spanish. 

He took us on a five hour trip all the way from one end of the canyon to the other. We walked, swam and did a bunch of cliff jumping (I stuck to the baby jumps!) The views were pretty spectacular. So spectaular that they popped it on the 50C note!

Ronaldo pointed out all kinds of animals- bats, snakes, lizards and these crazy spiders that jumped across the water! We also saw lots of cowboys and a massive herd of cows crossing the river.

Once again this is the kind of place that pictures don't really do justice!

On Monday I went to Cerro Negro to do volcano boarding. This is pretty much the only reason anyone comes to Leon...and I can see why! Awesome fun! Although a bit pricey.

We spent around an hour climbing up the volcano, which is the most active cylinder volcano in the world; it has erupted 23 times and cylinder volcanoes usually only erupt once. It wasn't a particularly difficult walk except that it was insanely windy - so much so that we were being blown to the ground at times! 

Once at the top we were shown the boarding technique and given tips about how to go faster or slower. The speed record is 95km/hr..insane! I was going pretty fast until I lost control and crashed, continuing to slide down the hill without my board. Eventually my board caught up with me and I managed to hop back on. Sadly, I couldn't regain as much speed and only clocked in at 22km/hr at the end- still felt pretty fast! It would appear I forgot to close my mouth...so it was full of dust and little rocks by the bottom! I think it will still be all through my hair for weeks.. Gross!

When I got back to the hostel that afternoon Dave had arrived and we grabbed some lunch. Enchiladas, of course! We went up the top of the cathedral, which is currently covered in scaffolding, therefore not much to look at. However, the view from the top was nice. Nothing special, as it's not a particularly pretty town. 

More friends arrived in the evening, from various places, and we all had a few drinks and played a few card games. 

It's too hot to stay away from the coast for too long, so Dave and I are off to see a little more of Las Peñitas for a night or two!

El Tunco, El Salvador

June 15-19

'Ello Salvador! The land of pupusas!

I had 4 marvellous nights to explore the tiny country of El Salvador. It is known to be a very dangerous country... Apparently the day before I arrived, 41 people were murdered in San Salvador (the capital). There are Lots of gangs, particularly in the city, but every single El Salvadorian person I've met has been LOVELY and I did not feel unsafe at all in El Salvador. 

I chose El Tunco as my destination because that seems to be on the 'Gringo route' (the path all tourists follow)

I met up with Dave upon arriving and he gave me a quick orientation of the town - all two streets! We braved the water for a surf lesson that afternoon. I've done a teeny tiny bit of surfing before, but never in waves like this! They were quite big and incredibly strong. Perhaps not ideal for beginners like ourselves... But we gave it a shot and had a fair bit of success! I stood up at least 6 or 7 times, Dave probably double that. The water was super rough though so I got a bang to the head, a fall onto the rocks (ow, my bum!) and swollowed a ridiculous amount of water. All part of the fun I guess!

We spent most of the afternoon and evening chilling and drinking by the pool at the hostel.

A group of 8 of us got up very early the next morning for an extravagant adventure! We were told that two chicken buses (public buses) would get us to Lake Coatepeque in around 2 hours... So naturally FOUR AND A HALF HOURS later, after 4 buses and 1 very crammed tuk tuk we made it to the lake! It was incredible.

It used to be a volcano crater but somehow eventually turned into a lake. There were barely any tourists which made it feel even more unique. A 'tourism police' boat appeared and offered to take us out for a ride - free of charge! He took us to a few spots out in the middle of the lake for a swim and then to a restaurant on another part of the lake where we relaxed on the decking and jumped off their little jumping board. 

Beautiful. Incredible. There are no words. Pictures don't do it justice. The ride back was equally hectic, involving chatting to many locals and scoring two free rides! I can't even begin to explain how lovely these people are. 

On my third day in El Tunco most of the friends I had made were leaving, however I wanted just a bit more time to explore. Those of us who were left went to a waterfall called 'Cascadas de Tamanique.' This involved a fairly difficult half hour walk each way, interspersed with views of the mountainous area.

The waterfall was beautiful, and mostly full of local kids rather than tourists. The kids would jump from ridiculous heights into the water, often head first! No fear whatsoever. Some of the boys I was with were brave enough to jump, but I just watched...

 

On my fourth and final day in El Tunco a couple of us got the bus to La Libertad, a nearby town, to roam the fish markets and buy stuff for dinner. It's not a particularly interesting town, so we didn't stay long & instead spent the day mostly lazing by the pool and reading my book.

Seth arrived in the afternoon and we watched some wicked surfers while the sun set on the beach.

We cooked up our feast in the evening and had a few drinks before heading out to the bars. It was very quiet out, but we met some locals and had a little boogey!

Monterrico, Guatemala

June 13-14

My last stop in Guatemala!

Kenzie, Jenn, Carolin and I decided to do a quick weekend trip to Monterrico before I headed off to El Salvador. Being just a two hour bus ride from Antigua and one of the nicest beaches in Guatemala, Monterrico is a perfect weekend spot. It is a tiny town with a black sand beach and not much else. Apparently it is very quiet during the week....That said, it wasn't all that busy on the weekend either! 

When we arrived in Monterrico on Saturday we spent the afternoon lazing by the pool, the beach and the bar. It is quite dangerous to swim in the ocean, as there are incredibly strong currents that pull you right out, so we mostly swam in the pool.

In the evening we met up with an Irish guy called Milton, who Kenzie had met through Spanish school in Antigua, along with some of his friends. During sunset we watched an intense local beach volleyball tournament.

Once it was dark, we entertained ourselves with cards, ping pong, pool... We rotated between the two bars on the beach and ended up at a 'club' where we were the only tourists and we stuck out like a sore thumb! So many stares...

On Sunday we did much of the same: pool and beach time! It was a nice little relaxing weekend getaway but I don't think I could've stayed too much longer...not a lot to do but drink and chill out!

It's very difficult to get from Monterrico over to El Salvador, so I returned to Antigua for one last night! Marcus (another housemate, from Germany) taught us a French card game called Korsar, good fun!

Farewell Guatemala :)

Byyyeeeee roomies!

Mi Segunda Semana de Antigua

June 7-13

My second week in Antigua was much like my first week; learning Spanish, volunteering at the school and exploring the city. 

As it turns out, it wasn't the fructose killing me...it was a parasite! Not ideal, but the good news is that I got antibiotics and now it's gone, so I have been able to enjoy Antigua much more than last week.

My Spanish teacher, Mary, has been fantastic- not only in teaching me Spanish but helping me find medication etc. However, two weeks was more than enough to fry my brain! 

A bunch of us went to trivia again on Monday...and came dead last again!

Kenzie and I walked up Cerro De La Cruz on a relatively clear day and managed to get a decent view.

We also went for a run one afternoon and discovered San Felipe church, which was quite pretty!

I finished up my volunteering on Wednesday so that I could have a bit of time to relax and enjoy Antigua before heading off on the weekend. 

 

The kids were gorgeous and I'm really glad I got to see what school is like in Guatemala.

One evening I went with Kenzie, Jill (from Ireland, who moved into our house this week) and Jenn (from the UK, who I met through volunteering) to a fancy restaurant up on a hill that overlooks Antigua. We had to wait almost an hour to get the bus there..but it was worth it. I had the most delicious GF alfredo pasta in the whole world. We all ate so much that we were exhausted after and ditched our plans to drink in favor of sleeping!

On another afternoon Kenzie and I went to Museo de Choco to learn all about chocolate! We did a two hour class where we learnt about the history of chocolate and got to make various chocolate drinks as well as actual chocolate. We learnt about how the Olmacs, Aztecs, Mayans and Spanish used to make chocolate drinks - often using blood! First we had to separate the cocoa bean from the husk (outer shell). Then we roasted them on a comar (traditional ceramic Guatemalan plate). We used the husk to make cocoa tea - soooo delicious! Then we ground down the bean until it was a paste and used this to make two different hot chocolates- one Mayan, one Spanish. 

 

Then the best part...the actual chocolate!! It takes hours to temper chocolate so we were given the melted chocolate, ready to be molded. I used turtle & starfish molds to create a variety of amazing chocolates- filled with coconut, pecans, macadamias, orange slices...many delicious things. We got to eat the left overs and then they let our chocolates set in the fridge for a few hours, before taking them home.

Success!! Deeeeeelicious!

For my final night in Antigua we went to Reilly's, had a few drinks and a little dance!