Honduras

We took a travel bus called Tica Bus from El Salvador to Honduras because it was an easy, direct route with no stops. The travel buses are said to be ¨land planes¨ and they really are.. there is more room to lean back, air conditioning on most, bathrooms, no stops or people selling chicle or chicken, movies, you get the idea. Anyway, we got into the capital, Tegucigalpa, at about 8 at night on a Saturday. Tegucigalpa is a huge city and we had no Limperas (teh national currency) so we had to ask our taxi driver to take us to an ATM. After we visited number 3, it finally worked and we found our hotel. We were STARVING when we got there as we had not eaten all day. We looked for somewhere to eat and everywhere was closed except for Wendy´s... so we ate our first North American fast food of the trip, a spicy chicken sandwhich. All and all, this was the worst day of our trip so far because we had to travel for so long, without eating, we got in after dark, had to eat at Wendy´s, etc. But it wasn´t THAT bad, so we have been very lucky!

The next day we took a bus to Lake Yojoa, the biggest lake in Honduras. We read in our guide book that there is a microbrewery owned by someone from Oregon and you can camp there for $2 a night so we were all in. We took a bus from Tegus to Peña Blanca, a small town and then proceded to walk 2 km to Los Naranjos where the brewery is located. Luckily, someone picked us up about 2 minutes into our trek and it turned out to be the owner of the brewery so he took us right to where we were going! D&D Brewery is a small microbrewery inside a beautiful garden right by Lake Yojoa. We set up our tent, drank some cerveza, and hit the sack.

The next day, we rented a paddle boat and rowed upstream to the lake. It wasn´t as easy as the sea kayaks that we have been used to on this trip where we both paddle, Darren was the one doing all of the work- facing backwards! I suppose that is the way you are supposed to use a paddle boat...It was absolutely incredible how many different types of birds there were; a birders paradise!! After about an hour of enjoying the lake, we (Darren) paddled back to shore. On our walk back to D&D, we saw a local billard bar and decided to go in for a game of pool because there was nobody in there. I guess that gringos in the local billard is a big deal because withing 2 minutes, the place was PACKED with local teenage boys! We stayed for 3 games of pool, Darren won-but barely... and then we went back for dinner and some sleep.

We woke up for the 6:30am bus back to Tegusigalpa and suffered through the ride; 4 hours without air conditioning, in the back of the bus right above the scorching hot engine with the fumes making us sick... But when we got back to Tegus, we hopped right on another bus to Valle de Angeles, a spot recommended by Rachel´s family; her uncle was a Peace Corps member stationed in Honduras, so Uncle Bob, Aunt Barbie, and cousin George (thanks guys!!) knew where to go and what to do! Valle de Angels is an absolutely gorgoes mountian town an hour away from the capital. We weren´t there on a weekend, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves! It was very a very beautiful town with fresh mountian air and sweet as can be locals. We strolled around, looked at the shops and handmade goods for sale, ate dinner, tried some local rum in a drink called ¨Por que no¨(as in, ¨do you want another drink?¨¨¿Por que no?¨ -why not?!)and then headed back to Tegus for the night to rest up for our long bus ride to Nicaragua the next day.

El Salvador

 After looking through our guidebooks, we decided that what we wanted to do in El Salvador was relax on the beach. We read that Playa El Tunco is a popular beach and it has great surf, so we headed on over! We found a super cheap place to stay called Brisas del Mar; there were only 2 rooms- one with three double beds and one single that was already occupied. So we agreed on the 3 bed room for a reasonable 5$ a night. It was great because we could see and hear the ocean right from our window! We tried not to let the sharp glass bottle security fence or barbed-wire worry us, and it turned out to be a very safe hotel as the couple who owned it stayed right next door to us.

The first 2 days, we just layed on the beach and played in the water. We also watched the AMAZING surfers. We found out that Playa El Tunco is one of the best spots in the world to surf, so there were plenty of professionals at all times of the day to watch. Darren decided he wanted to give it a whirl, so the next day, he took a lesson with a local named Burro. It went good; he was got the hang of it and stood up a couple times! But the surf in El Tunco is so good because you go out about 150 yards and when you are really good, you can ride the waves all the way in. However, when you are leaning it is exhausting to keep swimming out that far! After his 2 hour lesson, Darren was beat and we just hung out on the beach for the rest of the day.

The owner of the hotel gave us 2 hammocks that we strung out on the beach and while we were relaxing, Rachel thought she saw something way out in the water... she swore it was a whale. Darren went to grab his binoculars and sure enough, it was a HUGE whale, jumping out of the water!!!We went to grab our friend Jay and we all just watched the whale until it swam away.  It was playing in the warm water for about 30 minutes; jumping, flapping his fins, and blowing water out of his blow hole. It was one of the coolest things that either of us has ever seen!

Every night, we would finish up our day on the beach with a cold beer at a restaurant right on the beach and watch the locals play volleyball while the sun went down. Once it was dark, we would head over to a less expensive restaurant and split their $3.50 burrito platter. ¡Deliciosa!

 

Antugua, Guatemala

 From Semuce Champey Rachel and I headed south, past Guatemala City to the town of Antugua.  This ride was far more comfortable due to a slight mix-up on our part.  While in Semuc Chapey Rachel and I ran out of money, not in the sense that our bank accounts were dry, but we were unable to withdraw money.  Semuc Champey is located deep in the Guatemalan mountains just east of Copan, and to our supprise, it is without electricity, telephones, internet, and obviously no ATM machines.  We thought that we had plenty of money for the next few days because we had about 250 Qetsales (the currency of Guatemala).  This may seem like a lot of money, but it is actually about 33 US$.  To make a long story short, we were able to borrow 300 Questales from a wonderful fellow traveler from Israel.  The only catch was that we had to take the more expensive bus to Antigua with her, so we would be able to pay her back. In all the bus trip was probably the best way to have gotten to Antigua.






Antigua is a beautifully rustic town just out side of Guatemala City and it is obvious why the city is so popular with tourists.  The small central park is the nucleus of Antigua (which literary means Antique) and is surrounded by historic churches, some restored and some still crumbling. There are cobble stone streets for 30+ square blocks where the occasional horse and buddy can be seen.  So far this city has the most tourists that we have seen and its littered with hotels, restaurants, bars, y othas tiendas (other stores). One of the most picturesque parts of Antigua are the two Volcanos that tower above the city.




We were hoping to tent camp in Antugua, and it is actually free to camp at the Tourist Police Headquarters, but Antugua is higher in elevation and gets quite cold at night.  We decided that we should stay in a hostel (Im sure this makes our families very happy) because we don't have many warm clothes or warm sleeping bags.    The first few night we stayed at the hostel Gato Negro (Black Cat).  The dorms in the hostel were OK. There was a bathroom in our dorm room and normally that's a good thing.  Not this bathroom.  The bathroom smelled, maybe from the pluming or the green fuzzy mold on the wall near the shower... maybe both!  Either way we were not impressed, but we knew that we only had a few days before we left to Lago Aticlan- Panjachel.  Luckily we are never in our rooms or tent, only while sleeping.


Our first few days in Antigua were spent walking around the streets and going from shop to shop.  Like I said, there are plenty of tourists in this town, and where there are tourists.... there are shops!  I guess by now Rachel and I looking grungy enough to not be constantly hustled by street vendors. Joking! There is a wide range of accommodations here, mainly ranging from cheap to very expensive. Apparently Antigua gets a lot of rich business folk from Guatemala City too.


The second reason we wanted to come to Antigua was for its well known language schools. There are probably 20+ language schools in this small town, but after some research we were able to find the most fitting for us... the cheapest one! Not only did we want schooling instruction, but we wanted the full language emersion porgram. For this, we would have to  live with a local Guatemalan family. We paid 170$ US for one week of instruction and 7 night with a host family, which included all 3 meals of the day.  This come out to less than 25$ US a day.  Our classes were from 8am until noon, Monday through Friday. Rachel and I loved our teachers.  My teach Gustavo was an absolute trip! He would start everyday off by telling me a dirty joke in Spanish. Oooh Gustavo! The family that we stayed with was very nice tambien (also).  The family was quite large and all under one roof.  There were two married couples, four children, two grandparents, and three Spanish students, including ourselves.  Oh yea, and part of the down stairs was a restaurant.  The food was great and their hospitality was even better.  Rachel´s Spanish was very good to begin with, but the program was able to help her touch up on some shaky areas.  I on the other hand, had much more room for improvement. I noticed my Spanish became much better after the week, and I am much more confident when speaking in public. There are many rules that just need to be drilled into my head, poco a poco (little by little).   We even participated in a traditional Guatemalan cooking class, a salsa class, and took a trip into the near mountains for some strange Spanish class party. The program was wonderful and we both feel that we benefited greatly.



On the last day of class I had a new teacher from Spain who was amazing and has lived the most interesting life.  He is a nurse for UNICEF and has been all over the world. Him and his girlfriend are traveling central America for a year, and they are just finding odd jobs where ever they go. Anyways...Rachel, Juan Carlos (my teacher), and I went out for a night on the town on Friday. Unfortunately his girlfriend wasn't feeling very well and had work the next day, so she was unable to join us. It was definitely a great night though! Rachel and I practiced our salsa dancing, Juan Carlos showed off his Spanish moves on the dance floor. At one bar bar Juan Carlos suprised me by pushing me onstage with the live band and told me with the thickest Spanish accent, ´´Darren, today is a good day... It is your birthday!´´ So there I was, on stage, dancing with the live band as they wished me happy birthday and gave me a shot of flaming tequila.  It was the best fake birthday yet!

Lago Atitlan

Last Friday, February 4th, we decided to Antigua for a little rest and relaxation before school started the following Monday. We chose to go to Panajachel, Guatemala; a lake-side town with a big mercado and great volcano views.We took the local chicken at 7 am and of course there were double the amount of people as there was space (we´re talkin 5 people to a seat on a bus that is meant to hold 2...) but we got there none the less in about 3 hours. When we arrived, we had no idea where we were going to stay but we saw a sign for the Bahia Vision Azul and it said they offered camping.We took one of the little three-wheel, lawn mower engine taxi cabs to the hotel to check it out. We were absolutely blown away when we got there! It was about 3 km outside of the town so it was a seculded little campground with trees, grass, a pool, a hotel, a restaurant, bathrooms, hot water showers, and one of the best views we had ever seen. We originally set up camp back from the water because there was already people that looked like they had the prime real-estate. Just when we got our tent up, they started to pack up, so we didn´t unload our backpacks and waited for them to leave and then scooped the spot! We set up camp again on the best location offered and began our ´vacation´ by sitting by the pool all day with a couple of beers, potato chips and black beans. It was one of the best days yet!

The next day, we started the day off by swimming in the pool and then we hiked into town for some water. We also walked through the huge market that was selling tradicional Guatemalan clothing, jewlery, toys, etc. We saw a sign for the ¨Playa Publica¨- public beach, and went searching. After about an hour of walking we discovered that the public beach was really just the market that we were at earlier, but it is by the water, so obviously that constitutes a public beach... There was no sand, no swimming, just shops! We went back to our little campground and rented some kayaks for about an hour and set sail. The rest of the day was just as relaxing as the first so we decided to go out into the town to see when their Saturday nights were like. There were two bars that looked like they had all of the buisness; a local one and a tourist one. We felt like just having a beer and not speaking in Spanish so we chose the tourist bar.There was a band playing with a GREAT guitarist and a really bad singer and drum player, but they were playing classic rock like the Eagles, so we couldn´t complain too much. After about an hour we hiked back to our campground to find a huge dinner party with a loud, live DJ. We were pretty tired, so we just went to our tent and went to bed, luckily they shut the music off at exactly 10 p.m. The next day, we woke up early to head back to Antigua on another way-too-crowded bus that took us about 1/6th of the way. We found out that it was ¨market day¨so they didn´t run buses directly to Antigua; we had to keep switching, never really knowing where we were going (that is always half the fun) but we eventually made it back in about 5 hours.

Semuc Champay

Sorry for the delay in posts, but the two of us have been completely busy for the last week and a half.  Rachel has been doing most of the work on the blog, up to this point, and I think she has done a wonderful job if I might say.  However, its only fair that I share the work. 

The last place we wrote about was Tikal and the massive spectacle that it is.  After camping out for one night in Tikal we headed back to Flores for one more night and stayed in the hostel Los Amigos. We knew that there was a long journey ahead of us and but didn't really understand truly how long the trip was going to be.  We went to the local bus station, and Rachel did her best to get us onto a small minibus headed to Coban.  Well we were right that it was heading to Coban, but this bus was only going to take us 1/5 of the way.  This was the start of 5 buses totaling 7 hours on the way to Coban.  Each bus was more packed than the next.  After each bus Rachel and I would say, ''Well, there is no way a bus can fit more people that that ride.'' We were mistaken every time.  People were sitting on other people laps. One trip I had to sit on a wooden block in between the isles.  Oh well, it was quite the experience! This picture was taken on the most roomy ride of the trip.  Double the amount of people in this picture and you will have the most crowded bus trip.

We arrived in Semuc Champay district right before the sunset, and made it to our hotel.  We paid 7$ each for a private room which consisted of a bed and .... well just the bed.  The room seemed to have been built around the bed.  In the morning we were ready to see what the minerals waters of Semuc Champay had to offer.

The pools lived up the their hype and were beautiful beyond belief. Apparently there is a raging river that runs beneath an underground cave, but the residual overflow created natural pools, which seems to be specifically for swimming.   The water was surprisingly warm and there were even area to dive off of some of the short waterfalls.  Due to the minerals in the water, there is a slight green/turquoise color and there are hundreds of little fish swimming around you at all times.  There were very few people at the pools, but more seemed to arrive later in the afternoon.  The birds-eye-view was taken from the lookout, which takes a good 45 minute hike, straight up.  All in all, Semuc Champay was gorgeous and it is no wonder why is it

 considered one of the most beautiful places in all of Guatemala.  

Tikal

 From Flores, we took a trip to the ruins of Tikal. We camped there for about 30 quetzales a person, about 4 US dollars per person, per night. Since we got there after 3 pm we were able to get enterance into the park that day for free. We had read a little bit about theft at the ruins, so we were a little hesitant to leave our stuff behind, but there was a guard that let us lock our stuff up in his storage room. We went in with about 3 hours of sun left. It was astonishing how big the ruins and temples were... we were blown away! And the park its self is enormous too! We were just walking around, enjoying the beauty and the racoons that came out for their dinner (trash left behind from tourists...) when a security guard came up and told us that if we wanted, for 100 quetzales per person( about 12 US dollars), he would take us somewhere really special. We had heard rumors about this special place; something about seeing the sunset from the highest temple. We decided to go for it. The gaurd hurried us over to temple 4 and we climbed what seemed to be 500 stairs. When we got there, we thought we had been scammed because there were about 30 tourists sitting there to watch the sunset... we totally could have gotten there with no gaurd. But then he takes us around to the back of the temple, has us climb the scaling to a 20 foot ladder which leads to another 20 foot ladder! Rachel was absolutely terrified climbing up there, Darren, on the other hand, could have done it one handed... Anyway, it was incredible how high we were!! The place where we first went with all the tourists was probably 130 feet up, above the canopy of the jungle, and where we climbed to was about 100 feet above that! It was pretty scary, but so amazing to be that high, see the other temples peeking out from the trees, and to know that we were some of the few people in the world to see it from that angle was AWESOME!!!!

It was starting to get dark so we headed down the daunting ladders, scaling, and headed back to our campsite in the dark. The gaurd told us that for 200 quetzales we could sleep on top of temple 4 or in the gran plaza, but we declined because our camp site was already set up (and we didn´t want to roll over and fall to our death up there...) Lesson learned: in Guatemala, you can do whatever you want, no matter how dangerous or illegal, for a small fee. :) But that is not even the only thing that our 100 quetzales got us! We were also able to enter the park 2 hour before it opened to the public (at 4am) to hike to temple 4 to watch the sunrise! So the alarm goes off at 3:45 am, we get our headlamps, and head into the jungle to see the sunrise. The trip up was dark and a bit scary, especially because Darren swears that he saw a huge pair of eyes gleam from his headlight, but we made it there none the less... It was too foggy to see the sunrise, but being there, above the canopy while the animals were waking up was something neither of us will ever forget! It sounded like we were in Jurassic Park, the howler monkeys sound exactly like the t-rex´s from the movie. We will post a video later so you can all get an idea of what it sounded like, but it was absolutely amazing!

Then we went back to camp and splurged on breakfast that we split (our one meal outside of peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches the whole trip to Tikal) and we went back into the park for more sightseeing. It was really amazing to see how big the place was and how big everything is. And what is even cooler is that most of the site has not even been excavated, majority is still burried under moss, grass, and trees! All in all, it was a very exciting, very interesting trip!