Central America
ANGIE
EL SALVADOR
Again, we had never planned on going to El Salvador, but it was the cheapest destination in Central America (flying from Lima). It was far from cheap, but we had no choice. From El Salvador, we were going to bus to Guatemala right away, but we decided to stay and visit since we`d be in the country anyways. So we fly into San Salvador, the capital city and take a bus into the center. They love to cram as many people as possible into these buses and the 15 passenger van we were in took in about 24 people. Great, crowded and hot, with our backpacks on our laps. Arriving in the center of the city, it was crazy. Totally different from South America. There were tons of people, streets were filled with garbage, and there were a lot of guns. A lot of the stores have guards standing outside with shotguns. I can understand if it`s a bank, but bakeries and regular stores have them too. And also outside of some people`s houses. Most of the wealthier people travel with armed guards all of the time. On the surface, the city seemed kind of sketchy, but once we got to talking to the people, they were really nice and genuinely wanted to help us find our hostel. They were very honest and never once asked us for money. After what seemed like hours, we finally found our hostel and it was so good to have a private room again, with our own bathroom, TV, and AC. The past 2 weeks in Lima we stayed in shared rooms because we saved so much money by doing so. So it felt great to have our own room again and be able to spread our stuff out.
Pupusa is a typical food of the country and we pretty much ate these every day. It`s made of tortilla flour and inside there`s cheese, beans and meat. It`s served with green stuff in a jar (something like pickled cabbage?) plus some red sauce. Not exactly sure what they were, but it all tasted really good together. Cheap too! Only about fifty cents each and I got full off 3. A few years ago, El Salvador gave up their currency in order to adopt the US dollar. Very convenient for us, as we were able to withdraw in dollars and not be stuck with another currency!
The first day we just went downtown and walked around. What surprised me was the amount of American fast food chains they had. Just outside of downtown, they had this huge modern mall, with department stores with lots of American brands. It just seemed so out of place! It`s always interesting to hop on a local bus and take a ride around the city. We based ourselves out of San Salvador and just took day trips out of there. The 2nd day we went to a really old colonial town called Suchitoto. I think it`s the oldest town in the country and the buildings were beautiful. We really liked it a lot because it was so relaxed and laid back - quite the opposite of the city. We went down to a lake close by and met a local who had lived in Canada for 10 years. Apparently a large percentage of the population choose not to work because they receive money from their relatives who work in North America so it`s not worth it for them to work. Because of this, many people from Guatemala and Honduras come to this country to work.
Another day we went to see some Mayan ruins. It seems like the Mayans were everywhere and there are still ruins here plus Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. The ones here were very well preserved because they were buried under the lava from a volcano explosion. Since a lot of the ruins were made of clay, the hot lava preserved it very well. The day after, we went to the beach (Pacific Ocean!) and it was different because all the sand was black from the volcano ash. The waves were huge and there were a lot of surfers. Etienne rented a board, but didn´t last very long since it was only his second time surfing and the waves were crazy. Of course, there were no lifeguards, only a security guy with binoculars and a shotgun, but I really doubt he would have done anything if someone was in trouble in the water!
Unfortunately, we have zero pictures of our time in El Salvador since we never took our camera anywhere. We took the bus everywhere and were told that it was not uncommon for armed robberies to happen on these buses, so we just didn`t want to risk getting the camera stolen. This country was the one place where we saw almost no tourists. In total I think we saw about 2 or 3. I don´t think it`s a common travel destination, but I`m glad we ended up spending some time there.
GUATEMALA
From San Salvador, we took a Greyhound-like bus over the Guatemalan border to a town called Escuintla. I was glad to not have to go into Guatemala City because it is supposed to be quite dangerous, with numberous armed robberies. But I found out after that Escuintla was the 2nd most dangerous city, after Guatemala City. Luckily we didn`t have to stay there for long. The ride there was horrible. It was only a few hours, but of course they pack in way more people than seats. They had little plastic stools so people could sit in the aisle. Plus those buses don`t have windows that open because there is supposed to be AC, but of course they didn`t turn it on. The only relief was the wind coming in the emergency exit that was open at the top of the bus, but for no particular reason the driver would stop and get out of the bus for awhile... If outside it was 30 degrees, it must have been way more in the bus! The heat inside was unbearable. It was borderline inhumane to have so many people in the bus with no windows open! We got to Escuintla and it was kind of sketchy too. Way too many people, way too hot, way too much garbage. We had to ask around to figure out how to get to Antigua, our desination. Someone directed us to a chicken bus station. We`ve been on chicken buses before, but this one was the worst ever. Chicken buses are old school buses from North America that I guess aren`t good enough anymore and they ship them to Central America. Here they use them as public buses. They`re okay, but they cram so many people in you can barely breathe. If you can remember your old school bus, each seat is supposed to seat 2, but here they cram 4 people in one seat plus people crammed in the aisles and hanging out the doors. I was truly afraid one time when we pulled over on the side of the road to let more people in and the road was uneven and I thought the whole bus would tip over. Well the hour long ride seemed to last forever and just when you think there`s no way one more body could fit on the bus, they pull over and let 7 more people on...uuggh!
Antigua was the old colonial Spanish town of Central America. The buildings are soooo old and the whole town is interesting to walk around. It is the number one tourist destination in Guatemala so we weren`t surprised to see so many tourists there. There were so many foreigners with Guatemalan babies - it might be easier to adopt in this country since the birth rate is so high. We spent about a week here and enrolled in Spanish classes, one on one, for conversation only. It is so cheap to study here; it costs an average of $3.50 per hour to hire somebody. The school we went to offered lots of other activities too and one day we took a salsa class. Etienne didn`t really want to do it, but to my surprise, he really enjoyed it and wanted to do more! Another day we took a volcano tour and hiked up Pacaya volcano. It was about an hour hike to reach the bottom of the volcano and once we got there, we were able to hike over the hardened lava. We weren`t able to make it up to the peak because there was lots of lava coming down, but usually you can. It was crazy! The higher you got, the hotter the ground got and you could see steam coming out of the cracks under your feet. We got as high as we could until we reached the lava that was pouring down. We got pretty close and it was scary! The lava comes down really slow, but at random times, it will come crashing down a few meters really fast. Etienne went up really close to get a picture, but I was fine at a distance!
One morning we woke up to an earthquake! It wasn`t a very big one, but you could definately feel the earth shake. Apparently they have about 10 earthquakes a month! We were also there for Mother`s day and I can`t believe how big of a holiday it is there. It`s apparently about the same as Christmas. There were fireworks all day, choirs singing, lots of celebrations; it was great. The morning of, I got woken up by what sounded like bombs and the earth shaking. I thought it was another earthquake and that things were coming crashing down, but I found out later that it was just firecrackers for Mother`s day. Thank goodness!
HONDURAS
We wanted to go to the Bay Islands, so we took a bus for 6 hours from Guatemala to cross the border to Honduras. From there, we hopped on another bus to take us to La Ceiba, a town close to the ferries that take you to the islands. We had to spend a night in that town because we didn`t get there until late. There, we stayed at the worst hostel ever! The room itself was okay and we got a private room for only $9, but the kitchen and bathrooms were disgusting and unfinished. I think the hostel was undergoing renovation, but it really shouldn`t have been open in that condition. That night, we ate at a little shop and were sitting outside. It was about 10pm, and out of nowhere a bunch of men came up to the corner opposite of us and assembled into a marching band and just starting playing these huge instruments. It was hilarious - just so random! People started dancing in the stores and on the street; it was great!
The next day we took the ferry to Roatan Island, which is supposed to be the best one of the Bay islands. We stayed at the Sea Breeze Inn and the first night was great. We weren`t able to get the cheapest room because it was taken, but they let us have the $60 room for $40 for the first night, and then we would move to the $30 room the day after. The first room was awesome and it was great to stay in a nice place again! We knew that it was one of the more expensive islands to go to because it was the best one, but we soon found out how expensive it was! I guess because you`re stuck on this island you have no choice. Food was really expensive and we ended up spending about $50 per day for the both of us. It might not seem like much for 2 people for 3 meals, but just to put it into perspective, in other countries we spent on average of $10 - $20 per day. But the island was really beautiful and the water was crystal clear. We spent a few days on the beach and got REALLY dark! It`s funny, but the islands are totally different from the mainland in terms of people. The people from the islands are African and all speak English. It was so weird to be in an English speaking environment again.
TIKAL, GUATEMALA
From Honduras, we were going back to Guatemala and this time to the city of Flores to visit the great ruins of Tikal. Tikal was a large Mayan city (the largest of the ancient ruined cities of the Mayans) and we heard lots of good stuff about it, so we were excited to go. We took the bus back into Guatemala, this time taking a different route. It took us 2 days to get there and we had to spend a night in a town called San Pedro Sula in Honduras. Once we reached Guatemala, we had to change buses and got dropped off at some sketchy station. We got on the next bus that arrived. It was so old and rundown, many of the seats were deteriorated. We took a seat and waited, but they kicked us off and told us that this was a rented bus and if we wanted to stay we had to pay more. I`m sure this was a lie but we had no way of knowing for sure. They told us to take the next bus, which was in half an hour. One did come, but it was packed full. They wanted us to get on, but there was no way I was going to stand for the 6 hour ride with my backpack and squished with 100 other people. After arguing with the guy who told us to get off the first bus, we finally made it on to another bus two hours later! I was so pissed off! The transportation here is so bad and you have to fight for everything. Thank god we can speak Spanish! We get taken advantage of less and are able to argue our way out of situations.
Visiting the ruins of Tikal were amazing. The city is so big and it is in the middle of the jungle. Before it was discovered, the jungle took over and had covered the entire city. There is still so much left unexcavated. Sometimes they will excavate a building, document it, then cover it up again to preserve it. We were planning on walking around without a guide, but ended up getting one because we talked him down to a good price of $5 per person. Gotta love low season! It`s much more interesting with a guide because he tells you the whole story and points out things that we otherwise would have missed. He also knew all the shortcuts through the jungle and we got to see different animals and huge insects. The whole time we could hear the howler monkeys screaming and they sounded so angry. They`ve got quite the voice and it carries through the whole jungle. It sounds like a huge beast roaring but when you see the monkeys, they are small and cute - it`s hard to imagine them making such a big sound!
At the end of the day, the lazy bus driver tried to drop us off as soon as we got back into the town, but we had paid for transportation back to our hotel. There were other tourists on the buss too and they told me they paid for the same thing. So I had to argue with the driver for a few minutes before he finally agreed to drive us back to our places. These are the times when Spanish really comes in handy! While we were at Tikal, we met a girl from Quebec; her and Etienne found out they had a friend in common - small world! We ended up having dinner with her and another Canadian couple she met. The closer we were getting to home, the more Canadians we were meeting.
GETTING INTO MEXICO
The day after Tikal, we took a bus to go to Mexico and this time we opted for a `tourist` bus because we had enough of chicken buses and local buses crammed with hundreds of people. We made sure that the bus wouldn`t let on more people than seats. On a long ride, it makes such a difference! The ride was great, except for the fact that no one told us we were going to Belize first!! We get to the border and the Guatemalan immigration officers told us we had to pay a fee for leaving the country. We knew this wasn`t true because we had left the country before and didn`t pay anything. I couldn`t believe how corrupt they were! These were official officers at the official border crossing! Etienne argued with them in Spanish and told them that we weren`t going to pay, but they insisted it was the law and threatened to not give our passports back, but we stood our ground and eventually they let us go through without paying. Our whole bus ended up not paying because of this and they were pretty happy about that. The officials were not happy, but who cares, I`m sure they get enough money from all the other tourists who pay up. I guess if you just didn`t know, you would end up paying. Guatemala was great and had a lot to offer, but just having to fight over the little things all the time - we just had enough.
Once we were in Belize, we found out that we had to each pay $15US to leave the country, even if we were just passing through! What a rip off! We tried to get out of it, but with no luck. The worst part though, was that we were almost out of cash. We only had $33US and $20CAD. It was a stupid thing to let our cash run so low, but we were only back in Guatemala for 2 nights so we didn`t want to withdraw in their currency and be stuck with so much of it. Plus, we couldn`t find a place that would cash our traveller`s cheque for US dollars. We figured we`d be fine until we got to Mexico and we would just withdraw money once we got there. Bad idea! We should always have extra for unexpected costs. When we were in Belize, we couldn`t afford to buy any real meals so we just bought some bananas and fruit for $1. After we paid the $30US to leave Belize, we only had $2 US and $20CAD left. Some people who were on our bus got stuck at the Belize/Mexico border because they didn`t have enough cash to pay to leave. Our bus just left them there so I don`t know what they ended up doing! After crossing the Mexican border, we saw an ATM, but of course they were out of cash. At this point we were just over the border, walking, because we couldn`t cross in the bus, but once on the other side, our bus was nowhere to be seen and we didn`t see anyone else from our bus. We thought for sure they took off without us. We were just standing on the corner of the street for awhile, thinking about what to do next. Then finally our driver saw us and waved us over. He had parked down the road where we couldn`t see him. Had we not stood where we were for awhile, he probably wouldnpt have seen us either. From here, we were planning on going to Playa del Carmen or Cancun, another 4 hour ride. We met another bus driver who offered to take us there, but for too much money and quite honestly, we just didn`t have it! Finally he agreed to accept our $20CAD to take us to Tulum, a town close to Playa del Carmen. I can`t elieve the Canadian dollar saved us! It was the only Canadian bill we had the whole trip. Etienne was always telling me to exchange it because there was no point in carrying it around all the time. But it definately saved us this time! Now we had only $2US left...
ANGIE
