Central America

After our Caribbean week with Jim and friends we said our goodbyes and hit the road for the lush jungles of Costa Rica. Being such a small country (as are most in central America) it only took us a day to reach it’s large and seedy capital, San Jose. We were lucky enough to find a hotel room which was both filthy and expensive. The rats beneath the floorboards had a very exciting sub-floor war in the middle of the night, that was a startling wake up! We got Bee an oil-change and hunted for more comfortable warm weather riding gear. The gear hunt was to no avail. After Bee’s servicing we parked her securely in the hallway of our hotel where they had to literally rip out a part of a plywood wall so Bee would fit through the door. We then set out for a night on the town.

The following day we set out for Volcan Arenal, an constantly active volcano that boasts nearby hot springs and a hundred foot waterfall. Upon arrival in the town of Fortuna we found a great budget hostal. We began the following day with a ride up around the backside of the volcano, beautifully scarred by repeated lava flows and eruptions. We journeyed as far as Lago Arenal, which turned out to be a reservoir, had a quick snack then set out for the waterfall.

The travel guide book said 4wd vehicles only for the road to the waterfalls. That meant another off road adventure for Bee, a nice change after so many miles of paved roads. The ride was beautiful and the road nowhere near as bad as the book made it sound and we flew by with great satisfaction countless backpackers walking to the falls. Upon arrival at the park we paid our way in and began the 45 minute hike down the slick, steep limestone steps cut downward into the gorgeous jungle. It was pretty waterfall but for me the true attraction was the hike to and from it, my first true exercise in months.

On the ride back to town from the waterfall we passed a roadside stand where a local was selling cool green coconut water, a treat which we had been introduced to in panama. As we stopped for a refreshing drink all of this vendors’ animals were begging for coconut. The cat, the dog , the parrot and the toddler were frolicking harmoniously under the palms and making doe eyes at our coconut. They made a cute family, reminding me of the Bremen town musicians.

Our next stop of the day was the hot springs, a hot-tub temperature river heated by the nearby volcano. We swam, played and soaked and it was wonderful. The part we went to was a river which cascaded into multilevel multi-depth tiers of small and medium-small waterfalls into other pools of varying depths.

That was a full day so we weren’t up late and rose early the following day to head for Nicaragua. That was another great ride - the road along the reservoir alternately paved and unpaved, the scenery beautiful. After hours at the border we headed for the small beach town of San Juan Del Sur, where we arrived early enough to enjoy an afternoon of cocktails and sunning, topped off by a beautiful sunset. Our next destination was Lago de Nicaragua and the island of Omtepe which is the largest freshwater island in the world. It boasts one active volcano and another volcano with a lagoon in the crater. We took a barge out to the island which included a spectacular view of the smoking live volcano, Concepcion. Our hotel of choice rested on the far side of the island, and once again we took the long way round. It was one of the roughest roads we’d seen since Bolivia, but the difference between this cart track and others is that where we would normally be crossing the remains of riverbeds we instead crossed the remains of rocky lava river flows, with views up the mountainside of charred trees and new growth sprouting from the lava. Pretty wild.

We found a nice but pricey hostal on the lake. We would have hiked the non live volcano but it meant a 5 and a half hour hike and we are far too lazy for that. Our existence during our stay at the lodge depended entirely on what was available in the hotel restaurant and bar as there were no markets at all. The hotels monopolized all island feeding rights. It was a great laid back rest though. Our room was on the second floor of a fairly rickety structure built of logs, twine, boards and nails. On our last night we were awakened in the middle of the night by a 4.5 earthquake which scared the crap out of us. We reached for each other in a panic then were able to fall back asleep. Being from California we would not normally be phased by such a small earthquake but the structure we were in was so ill built and seismically unfit that it made it pretty spooky. The whopper was the 5am 5.6 earthquake during which we could literally hear the nails screaming in agony being ripped from their boards while it felt like the hotel would surely collapse. For a moment we thought that was the end of it all. Upon the conclusion of that tremor, as the building was still swaying and beginning to lean the hotel owner came upstairs and told us to evacuate our rooms and go downstairs. As soon as we were able we returned to our room and packed at a record speed. Island panic had ensued. The locals believed that volcan Concepcion was having an eruption. Needless to say we saddled Bee promptly and were on the first ferry off the island an en route to Honduras. Local news stations later stated that a side of the volcano had collapsed and the media was on full volcano watch.

After staying the night in a Nicaraguan town on the border of Honduras we got up early for the big two border crossing day. The first border crossing took two hours. The five hour ride through Honduras was breathtakingly beautiful, but there was more road-kill than we had ever seen before, and the vultures blocked out the sun in some places. That is where Adam decided to start the road-kill blog. The Honduras/ El Salvador border crossing required a little over three hours to complete. The El Salvadoran border crossing and customs was especially stupefying. It required visiting three different buildings, two stamps, eight photocopies, multiple vin number, engine number and license plate verification checks and lots of waiting in lines at 2pm in 95 degree heat, but amazingly cost no money.

Hot and frustrated we raced for the city of San Miguel which boasted a nearby water park, acclaimed as a rare and exceptional “must see” in central America. The guidebook alleged 100 foot water chutes. It turned out to have one 30 foot slide and a six foot deep swimming pool with an eight foot high diving board into it. Brilliant! We didn’t stay there long. Our shattered expectations of the water park were so traumatizing that we fled for Guatemala the very next day. Guatemala turned out to be my favorite country in central America. Beautiful little indigenous people everywhere, lush jungle and fun roads.

On to Guatemala city we went, the map to which turned out to be totally indecipherable so we gave up on finding lodging there right away. What a nightmare. We blew right through it and Bee-lined for the lovely town of Antigua. Our early arrival in Antigua called for a much deserved cocktail stop in the first gringo bar we saw. It was a cute little touristy town and we quickly located super-cheap, mosquito-ridden lodging in a home for the mentally handicapped. We felt right at home. Adam even booked us a day trip by bus for a change. Early the following morning we were to hike up the live volcano Pacaya. After a 2 hour bus ride we took a 3 hour hike up a mountain to a sulfurous-smoking-crater with flowing-red-lava. It was a long hard hike, worth every step. It was amazing to be within 30 feet of actual flowing lava. The drawback was when I took out my camera to photograph the flowing lava, the raging winds swept the case away into the lava flow. I now carry my digital camera around in a sock. The hike down was the best part- sand sliding down a quarter mile of scree. One British guy fell pretty bad and almost took out the group at the bottom of the slope. It was a long fun day, and a good leg stretcher.

Our entire last afternoon in Antigua we asked various sources about the condition and types of roads and timeframe we could expect to our next destination, Lanquin. As usual everyone had a different answer. We decided we could make it in one day, even though the map showed the road to be but a cart track. The road was paved for a few hours, then signs as well as pavement ceased to exist. We managed to miss a turn and end up 20 miles in the middle of nowhere before we hit a village whose kind citizens showed us how far astray we were. It may not sound like much but 20 miles is pretty far on a cart track. We turned back and managed to find the right turn (Amazing!). The road was spectacular in it’s crudeness. We got a couple of good photos of some extreme roadwork. At one point in the jungle along this cart track highway a torrential downpour began and we had no idea how far ahead the nearest town with lodging was. Fortunately it turned out to be only about 10 km of intense weather riding before we reached a town with perfect lodging. We were soaked and of course as soon as we arrived the rain stopped completely.

The next morning from there it was a short ride to Lanquin. The highlight there was a river which flowed out of a limestone cave. The cave was beautiful yet riddled with clear signs of abuse from tagging hippies in the 60’s. We stayed in dorm beds in cabanas downstream from this water source. It was a great little hostal, one of the highlights of which was inner-tubing from the mouth of the cave to the rivers edge on the banks of our hostal, a 30 minute ride. We also visited the famous tourist site Semuk Champay, consisting of caves, waterfalls and azure pools for swimming. It was gorgeous. The following day we decided we had had enough of each other for a while so I packed my bags and caught a 5am bus for Flores, the jumping-off point for the Tikal pyramids. The bus for Flores was a great adventure for me. I transferred three busses and the last one traveled a 70km stretch of dirt road in the rain, fishtailing the whole way at a heart-stopping 80km per hour. The pyramids of Tikal were an awesome sight. Adam and I decided some time apart was needed and we would meet up in Belize where I intended to do a lot of diving which Adam was less enthusiastic about.

Alone in Lanquin, Adam managed to fend off the hordes of women pursuing him in my absence and befriend a cool Israeli fellow by the name of Matan who rode with him to Flores the following day. He got to enjoy my special throne on Bee! We all met up for one night in Flores. I had already booked and paid for a 5am bus for the next morning for Belize, which I would have blown off to travel with Adam there but it turned out he forgot his jacket in Lanquin and needed to arrange it’s retrieval so I stuck to my independent backpacker style travel plans. Adam spent two days and 700 miles retrieving his jacket.

It was a great backpacker adventure for me traveling alone from Guatemala to Belize by bus. I went directly to Caye Caulker and went scuba diving four days in a row, one of which included the famous Blue Hole, a 160 foot dive into an underwater cave full of stalactites and stalagmites. At 40 feet there were well over 20 bull-sharks, some over 10 feet long. It was quite a rush to dive with sharks!

Adam and I reunited in Belize and after a couple of days made a run for the Mexican border. We are now in Mexico enjoying the great food, and getting along much better after our little break. Next stop Cancun, where we can get badly needed tires for Bee.