Kat & Marty

We were greeted in Nicaragua by a man in crutches smoking the biggest cubana I have ever seen leaning up next to an old yellow school bus with èxpresso`painted across the top. Tickets were cheap but he didn`t have change for us so we went to a nearby shop to break up our bill. While there another guy came over and offered us a ride in a directivo van at over twice the price. We agreed as we are over spending hours in crowded uncomfortable buses that stop and start every 5 minutes where Marty can`t even fit his knees in behind the seats. We left the border town to the sounds of the cigar smoker^s curses at the directivo for poaching his customers.

Leon has a reputation of being a cosmopolitan colonial town. To me it still just seemed pretty dirty and run down. We had a drink on the central plaza and Marty was served with a beer so cold it turned to ice in his cup. We took a room in another Via Via hotel and though it didn^t have a bathroom it was definitely the coolest room we had in a while with two double beds, a huge wooden desk I took the opportunity to use to write at and nice candle holders and cool paintings around the place which made it feel much more homely. We looked all over to find somewhere to do some much needed laundry but had no luck. We had dinner opposite a church that was holding a Wednesday night meeting. It was so nice to hear the singing as we sat there. The menu didn^t look too promising so Marty asked for a typical meal. This hadn^t been on the menu but turned out to be one of the best meals we have had in SA. The platter for two came out with salad, french fries, fried plantans, cooked bananas, corn chips with beans and cheese, cheese tacos and fried chicken. We couldn^t even finish it between us.

After an early night we got up in good time and found a travel agent to book us plane tickets to the Corn Islands for that afternoon. We were very fortunate to find an English speaking agent as Spanish is still barely understood by ourselves. As soon as we had our receipt we rushed around getting cash, packing our bags and getting to the bus terminal. We found a directivo van to Managua 1.5 hours drive away and had to sit in it for a good half hour while the few remaining seats were filled. It is a bit like sitting in a goldfish bowl as all the hustlers spot a white person and come running. Mostly they are selling snacks or drinks but some just come to beg. Marty had one strange young man come up to the window next to him and stare at him with puppy dog eyes for about 5 minutes. The strange thing was, was that he didn^t say anything or ask for money, he just stared. It was a relief to finally pull away.

Our flight to Big Corn Island was in a rather empty 30 seater plane. I don^t know what type it was but the windows seemed much lower to the ground than most airplanes and on landing felt like we were going to sink into the earth. We had a brief stopover in Bluefields - named after a Dutch pirate - before our arrival on the island. We had made the decision to go straight over to Little Corn Island so took a taxi around to the ferry terminal. Our ride over was pretty exciting. We were in a little open outboard dinghy. As soon as we got out of the shelter of the harbour we were in two metre swells. One lady on board got really sea sick - for once not me! Another lady was terrified and pulled out a good proportion of Marty¨s leg hairs as she held onto a side of his shorts for dear life. With me hanging off his other arm he was quite the gentlemanly support for the lady passengers.

We arrived on Little Corn at sunset and pretended we knew what we were all about. The hotel we wanted to stay at was called Sunrise Paradise and was located on the other side of the island. There were no roads only a series of little dirt paths that criss cross the island. We ended up having the hotel tout, Dennis, show us where to go and it is a good thing he was there or we would have been wandering around all night. When we got there they only had one room left with bunk beds which I wasn^t going to stay in so they got one of the other guests to change rooms for us. Gareth is a traveller originaly from England but knew this part of the world really well so was good to talk to. Some of the other guests there were a group of Norwegians from a Spanish school in Leon, a man from Florida who now lives in the Cayeman Islands and spent his whole time underwater skin diving and finally an English couple who are doing a similar thing to us only for 14 months and around the entire world. We enjoyed spending quite a bit of time talking to George and Chris about their experiences and future travel plans, perhaps we will see them a little bit down the road as we are visiting a lot of the same places.

Our room was a little wooden shack roofed with coconut fronds that kept the heavy night rain off us surprisingly well. The hotel had a few tables with lights down on the waters edge. Our first night was spent talking with the other guests and trying to keep our feet out of the way of the huge crabs that were running around. In fact I think we spent most of our time on the island sitting at these tables.

The next morning was overcast and windy so we decided to go for a walk rather than try and snorkel. We went around to where the ferry had landed which was at the main settlement. We had a breakfast of eggs, rice and beans there then found our way to a lighthouse at the top of the island with a great lookout platform. We then dropped down onto the beach and tried to follow it around the top of the island back to our hotel. At one point we came around a corner to find a skiff pulled up on a beach with a group of men around it. We were first worried that we had stumbled across a drug drop off but it was nothing so dramatic. They were bagging sand for a new pier being built. Eventually the coastline became too rocky for us to follow so we climbed up and walked through the forest finding wild pineapples growing amongst the coconut palms. It is strange as a lot of the paths go right past peoples front doors making us feel like we were invading their privacy a bit but they were all really chilled.

Back at Sunrise Paradise we went for a swim in the wind stirred water but it was a bit cold so after going over and picking up some coconut bread for the next mornings breakfast we settled in for the night. As it was full moon we decided to have a big bonfire. Dennis also cooked Rondon - a coconut based fish stew with various root vegetables in it. He borrowed our spice jar and shook it so hard the lid came off and deposited the entire lot of cayenne pepper, black pepper, chili, salt and garlic salt and curry. He said later it was the best tasting Rondon he`d ever made. We went to sit next to the fire after dinner just as it started to rain so we had to move inside, but it was still a fun night with lots of interesting people to talk to. It was so good to be in an environment where everyone was friendly.

The next day we had arranged with Dennis to take us out on a boat fishing and snorkelling, however the weather didn`t come to the party with rain storms and wind. We hired some snorkelling gear anyway and swam out to a reef straight off from the hotel. It was so wavy that I got sea sick swimming out would you believe. Even the little tropical fish were getting knocked around by the surge. We tried over the other side of the island which is more sheltered and in a 50 - 100m swim saw a giant spotted eagle ray, rows of squid - bizarre - and a new kind of fish that was black with flourescent yellow stripes swmming amongst t-shirts, beer cans, soda bottles and other rubbish that was caught on the coral. The visiblity still wasn`t too good and we got caught in some waves. Without the protection of a wet suit on the coral we decided enough was enough and called it a day.

That night we went into town to a restaurant of good repute with George and Chris. Unfortunately the chef had gone home sick so we had to make do with another restaurant. Dennis was meant to return our money from the boat trip we didn`t go on but never showed up which was a little disappointing. However the company was good and we had a very enjoyable night.

The next morning was an early one to make the 7am ferry. It was running really late and there were a lot of people going back on it so I was worried we wouldn`t make our 8.30 flight from the big island, but it wasn`t a problem and we were even offered drinks on the flight back to Managua. There the taxi from the airport dropped us to the wrong bus station so instead of a directivo mini van we ended up on a chicken bus to Granada. Even so it was still only an hour away.

Granada is a beautiful town on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. We had a hostel recommended to us by the name of Oasis and it proved to be so. So much in fact we have barely left the premises. It has a pool, nice rooms, lots of hammocks, free tea and coffee and best of all free internet usage. I sat down on the bed for a moment and fell asleep for about 4 hours. We only left for dinner the place for dinner, finding a really nice inexpensive restaurant to eat at. It felt like a date, it was a really fun night out for us and so refreshing to take time out from the road.

In the morning we walked down to the Central Plaza and spent some time in the church before walking down to the edge of Lake Nicaragua from which we could see the twin volcanoes of Ometepe Island which we unfortunately didn`t have time to visit. We went to a muesem and were given a free tour - well included in the price of our ticket anyway. We saw the old games the indiginous people used to play which mainly seemed to involve spinning around on a pole like the Mexican sky dancers or attaching oneself to a pretty wild looking sea saw thing that spun upside down as well. They also housed a lot of stone statues found on various lake islands.

Later that afternoon, after Marty got a haircut, we caught a bus down to Rivas. From Rivas we took a crazy collectiovo taxi to San Juan del Sur, a seaside town famous for surf and for being a gringo hangout. The driver spent half the time on the side of the badly sealed road rather than on it and I was praying for dear life! We booked into a hostel called Casa Oro which had a good write up and good advertisements but were under major re-construction. Our room was very basic with raw wood walls and concrete floors  (actually sounds quite trendy but the reality was more of a shed effect). We were tired and wandered around a bit lost until we bumped into some fellow travellers, one of whom had shared a taxi with us back on Roatan. When the restaurant closed that we ate at, we took some drinks down to the beach. The sand was wet so we gate crashed a boat someone had conveniently had parked in the street and had an impromptu boat party.

The next day was a surf day. We joined a surf shop to drive out to a beach where we had perfect learner waves all day long. It was one of the best surfs I have ever had! The drive out was on a rough dirt road past wealthy American developments. There was one small hostel out at the beach but nothing else, only sun and long breaking waves that gave even me time to get up on my feet. Marty went off, catching green water rather than the broken surf. We stayed until sunset then exhausted had an early night.

Our next morning was an early one to catch a taxi back to Rivas where we only just managed to get on a Tica bus  bound for Costa Rica. It was so full we couldn't sit together but at least we were on our way. 

We caught a ride from the Guatemala/Honduras border with a soccerplayer who had nicked over the border for a game with his neighbours. He dropped us off for a small fee to the center of Copan Ruinas where we found a room that was clean and reasonbly quiet. It was reccommended by our first choice - the lush looking Cafe Via Via, but alas their rooms where all full and we weren't keen for dormitory beds. Copan Ruinas is a lovely little town from which you can walk straight to the Copan Ruins themselves.

We decided to hire a guide for our last Mayan ruin experience and were able to share him with 3 other tourists to lower the price. He was quite good given his English abilities and we found that we weren't learning more but rather consolidating what we had already discovered. The Mayan people were warlike and had take on board the Olmec religion that requires human sacrifice. The Copan Ruins were the most artistic of all the uncovered ruins in SA and had incredibly detailed stelaes. The public areas were full of altars for different sacrifices and contained a ball court for the infamous ball game of whose winner gets the privilege of being sacrificed.

We spent the morning at the ruins but hunger called us back into town for a large hamburger lunch. On returning to our hotel we discovered a children's birthday party in full swing. A young man swung a pinata while the children had turns smashing it with a stick. It was amazing none of them got decapitated as they ran in to retrieve the falling candy. We had a nap then went out on the town. The highlight was a place called Fred Frog's Bar. It was being run by a young North American who had bought it off the internet. We met an Irish couple who were teaching English in a small country village which actually sounded really rough. They didn't even have running water most days. We went home to our bed for the night late and it wasn't till we got there that I realised I had left my glasses in another bar we had visited earlier. It was a disappointing moment as when we went back it had closed for the night and our bus in the morning left at 6am.

The bus took us out to La Ceiba named after the large shady trees in the area under which traders used to sit with sea merchants and do business. Now it is one of the world`s largest drug ports so we didn`t hang around there too long but instead took the sea ferry to Roatan. Roatan is one of a small group of Caribbean Islands named the Bay Islands and is known as the cheapest place in the world to do your dive certificate. We shared a taxi with some other tourists down to the popular West End and were dismayed to find it a money hungry pit where everything was priced for the American tourist. We had been warned it was like this but the reality was worse than we expected. We ended up staying in a divey hostels best room which had it`s own bathroom - kind of - a shower that didn`t work, then when it did the kitchen water mysteriously stopped working and no hand basin. But it did have it`s own balconey with sofa to look out over the ocean. Or at least where the ocean would be if broad leafy tree branches didn`t block the view. The best thing was that it came with a mosquito net, it is amazing how much we are being bitten. It is a good thing we are taking malaria pills because repellant doesn`t seem to dissuade the insects much.

The next morning we rented snorkel gear and walked around the beach to West Bay where we discovered why Roatan  is so magical in reputation. It was the perfect beach with white Caribbean sand, crystal clear warm water and palm trees set back a little for shade. Even better from our perspective was that it was free from hustlers. We snorkled all morning and into the afternoon burning ourselves to crisps. The sea life was incredible - as good as any dives I have done. We were both shocked to discover a stone fish as we thought they only lived in Australia. It wa funny listening to the parrot fish munch on coral. Underwater they were so noisy.

We went back to our room that night tired but very happy and very sunburnt. We spent the evening cooking pasta in our room and coating ourselves in after sun gel.

In the morning we were up early again to catch the 7am ferry back to the mainland. After taking a malaria pill with some other medication I was violently ill. At La Ceiba we got on another chicken bus to go south. We ambitously hoped to cross the border down into Nicaragua and stay in the town of Leon but it was too far for one day so we stopped in Tegusigulpa - the seedy capital city of Honduras. While I felt unsafe and uneasy in Guatemala City, Marty felt those feelings in Tegus. We stayed in a dodgy hotel close to the bus stations which was once again a bit pricey for what we were getting. We had to share one half sized towel though the old tv did pick up an English news channel or two. We did sleep well after a basic chicken meal in the taqueria next door. It was a relief to lie down and let my body recover a little. Marty on the other hand was as right as rain.

The sun brought another day to spend on chicken buses. We were able to get a bus that stopped near the border then take a directivo van down to the border. We are finding the vans so much better to travel in as they don`t stop and start as much as the buses so arrive a lot quicker to our destinations. At the Nicaraguan border we were immediately surrounded by a large crowd of hustlers trying to get us to change our money or ride in their bicycle taxis. Somehow we did manage to find ourselves on a bike being pedalled to the exit office for Honduras. The money changers followed us in. We were charged 14US to leave so Marty asked for a receipt as this apparently lets you off made up fees. The border guard said no problem and wrote out our receipts so I guess that one was a genuine fee for once. I hadn`t imagined that we would leave Honduras soil on a bike. But Francis Freddy as he told us his name was, took us over the bridge into Nicaragua.

From the confines of a shared taxi to the Guatemalian border, we were greeted by a crowd of persistant touts. Eventually we decided to change a little money then took another taxi to a bus station 1km up the road. It was too blisteringly hot to walk. The bus station had no buses to Flores, an island on a lake next to the town of Saint Helena, but a mini van went past and took us on board. We shared around some caramel popcorn cakes we had bought that morning with some of the other locals on the van and everyone was really nice to us after that. It was a good feeling to ride along with the local people instead of riding an expensive tourist bus.

Flores was pretty and quite cheap to stay on. We had a large room with a bathroom for our dollars and a view over the lake. We booked straight onto a bus to go and spend the afternoon at Tikal - Mayan Ruins - and almost missed the bus as once again we got caught out by a time change crossing the border.

Tikal was the ultimate ruin experience. The ruins are set in lush, fertile jungle full of the roars of Howler monkeys and shrieks of Parrots and Toucans. The ruins themselves are enormous and some have been closed off as people have fallen to their deaths off the steep staircases. We raced around to see as much as we could before the park closed and the last bus for the night left back to Flores, but still managed to find time to sit on top of a pyramid and absorb the noisy jungle cacophony at sunset.

The next day contained a long, long bus trip across the strange sharp, hilly landscape of Guatemala to Antigua. This town is famous for it's beauty as it is set in the cradle of 3 volcanoes. We arrived late at night after an incident free bus changeover in Guatemala City, and not wanting to walk around the streets with our packs on, we took the first room we came to. It was dirty and over priced and had a huge bird cage full of illegal birds like toucans and different endangered birds all looking mangy and sorry for themselves. We walked into the traditional central park and found a reasonble restaurant to eat dinner in. Lights lit up the buildings and created a nice ambience. Most of the churches here are in ruins due to numerous earthquakes over the years but were still impressive none the less. In the morning we went into the center for breakfast and discovered a large carnival was taking place to celebrate a saints day. School children were everywhere, jumping on bouncy castles and playing mini sport games. We enjoyed watching the celebrations before buying a traditional, ceramic chocolate pot as a keepsake. Buying this pot was a really nice experience as the shopkeeper allowed us  look without pressurising us to buy everything we looked at like most people seem to.

We caught a chicken bus back to Guatemala city in order to get down to the Honduras border and ran into our first trouble. A rather scabby looking man was hanging all over Marty like a rash. In the extremely crowded bus he had some excuse as the conductor moved up and down the crowded aisle. At one point he got a bit too close and while amused at his weird antics I was trying to work out how to tell him to back off in Spanish, when Marty yanked his day pack away from him. He immediately jumped off the bus but he had slit a large hole in the back pack and had our rather empty wallet half out. It had got stuck so when he tried to get it out Marty saw the bag move and was able to stop him. We both felt shocked but had committed to a long day of different chicken buses which were now unavoidable. From that moment on we have been very much on our guard. There were some beautiful moments too. Someone came on the bus selling pastries. I asked a mother and her child what they were and the mother asked the little girl to let me taste hers. She immediately offered me a bite. It was so nice to have someone behave generously toward us as a lot of the time our interaction is with touts or people working in the hospitality trade.

The buses are second hand American school buses or sometimes a more direct minibus. The operators pack as many people in as they can before they will leave. On the other hand, if there aren't enough people to fill the seats the driver won't leave. We were in this situation on our last connection to the border and went from being in good time to get into Honduras while still light to sitting for ages in a town 30 minutes from the border waiting for the seats to fill. Finally we were able to leave but it was well and truly dark when we did get to El Forida for our crossing. One nice thing about this was that there was only one money changer left to harrass us and he ended up being quite helpful, even organising us a ride on to Copan Ruinas 10km away since the buses had stopped running for the day. 

Belize was the domain of pirates but not much is left of that legacy except a knowledge of the seas. We crossed the Mexican border after dark and had to pay the border guard a made up fee to leave. On the Belize side a taxi driver took us to the nearest town of Corozul and dropped us off to a very basic guest house for the night. My health was failing rapidly and had to use the cockroach ridden bathroom frequently through the night. Fortunately for me, that was the worst of it. In the morning I took an anti-nausea pill for our boat taxi to San Pedro then we took our first malaria tablets as well. I find them pretty damn awful but Marty is fine with them.

Of course, crossing a border means a time change so we were at the taxi departure pier at 5:45am instead of 6:45am. We lay around on the pier and waited the hour until we could finally leave at 7am. San Pedro was beautiful with the aqua blues and greens in the water that you see on all the holiday brochures for the Caribbean. We had breakfast, found a shop that sold Central America Lonely Planet Guides in English (quite an accomplishment!), then jumped on another water taxi over to Caye Caulker, a smaller island 20 minutes away. Mel and Matt had told us about it so we were looking forward to being there and we weren´t disappointed. The island has about 3 sandy streets and people drive golf carts to get around instead of cars. One street is a long row of dive shops, restaurants and hotels. We got a bright yellow cabana right on the ocean. Inside it was plain but very comfortable and I decided I never wanted to leave.

The next day we booked onto a couple of dives in Spanish Bay to refresh ourselves on how all the diving aparatus works before attempting the 40m dive in the infamous Blue Hole. It was beautiful with colourful corals, stunning schools of brightly coloured fish and even a starfish bigger than Marty´s hand. We also saw a giagantic sting ray (Southern Ocean Ray) and a moray eel. Because of a strong breeze the swell was quite high and true to form I lost it over the side before the end of the day. Despite that it was well worth it. We saw a giant sea turtle come back for air on the way back finishing a very fun expedition. Back on land we went down to the Lizard Bar and Grill for a drink. This bar/restaurant is right on the end of the island and you can literally jump right off the side of it into the ocean - very cool!

The next day we got up early and by 6am were on a motorboat powering for the Blue Hole 2 hours ride away. I was glad I had thought to take an anti nausea pill this day as the swell was still high and others on the boat were looking quite green, but I was fine! Actually I still tried to do all the anti prevention things like sitting on the back of the boat where the movement is least as without the pill it would have been horrific. As usual Marty was fine and enjoyed exploring the large boat we were on and chatting to the dive masters out with us. There were a lot of people on board - about 30 paying as tourist divers and around 8 dive masters. It was chaotic and it was easy to see how people can go missing undetected. Fortunately for us that wasn´t to be our fate. We arrived over the Blue Hole and had a briefing then we were straight off the end of the boat and going down. We hit a sandy ledge then descended over that into the murky depths. At 40m there wasn´t a lot of light, but enough to see the giant stalagmites and stalagtites that are a left over from when the cave was above water. It also was enough to see the seemingly gigantic 8 foot long reef sharks that came to check us out along with enormous groper. As we slowly ascended the gropers kept pace, then when we got back to the sandy ledge for a safety stop, a group of about 8 sharks circled over the hole right next to us. It was surreal and far beyond the 1 foot sharks I thought we would be seeing. Even Marty was blown away by the experience of having sharks only a few metres away.

Our next dive was beautiful with lots of colourful fish and coral along with a barracuda to show us his teeth. Right at the end of it Marty saw some sea eels hiding their tails in the sand and waving around like seaweed to lure fish closer. For lunch we stopped at a little Carribean Island called Half Moon Caye (from memory) where we were given the quintessential Central American lunch of chicken and beans with rice. We were given 20 minutes to walk around which was only enough to see a quick glimpse of seabirds nesting there. Our last dive was quite shallow and we swam along a reef wall called the aquarium. The name was very apt as vast quantities of sea life abounded there. Looking out past the wall we saw a giant turtle swim past, then huge schools of bright blue fish. On the wall were clown fish, parrot fish and so many more it would take forever to name them all. Coming up to the surface we found a barracuda hiding right under our boat.

It was nice to get back on dry land. Marty bought us a pineapple for dinner and we ate it on the shore outside our room. After all the sun and fun of the last 2 days we slept early and long. The next day I was heartbroken to leave. I could have given up the rest of our travels and not moved any further, but alas. Hitting Belize City was like culture shock. Between the water taxi and the bus terminal was a slum of falling down houses and trash and bad smells everywhere. We walked quickly through. Here we caught our first chicken bus. There weren´t any chickens but the man sitting in front of Marty was carrying a gun and the man in front of him was packing a machete. Later we found out as soon as you turn 18 you are legally entitled to own a gun and for $25US you are able to buy one on the black market. Due to lack of forensics and the ratio of one police car to 50,000 people (not certain that is acurate - it is a word of mouth figure) with no government support, most crime is ignored. Even if there are witnesses, word of mouth is not good enough for a conviction so only clear finger prints give you away. Figure how easy it is to get out of that one!

We landed in San Ignacio and settled into a very basic guesthouse named an ambiguous Central Hotel. Tony who runs it was really friendly as was another Canadian man who had been living in the town for 3 months in an attempt to win a local girl´s heart. On their advice we went and checked out some local Mayan ruins which we had to ourselves. The English translation was City of Lice and it was quite a small holding in it´s day but was nice to visit.

The next day we took a tour to see Ankh Tunichil Muknal or Cave of the Stone Sepulchure which featured in National Geopgraphic. We had to swim over a water hole to enter the cave where our guide led us through many twists and turns. Limestone formations glimmered on the sides as we waded and at times swam in for nearly an hour. At a given point we climbed up into a dry cave through a steep narrow entrance that led to a vast cathedral littered with 1000 year old ceramics and bones remaining from religous Mayan ceremonies. The Mayans saw caves as the underworld and took food and sacrificial victims deep within to communicate with their gods. Lime had seeped through and begun to cover a lot of the remains. The incredible thing about being there was that there were no barriers. The only thing between us and the destruction of a Mayan artifact was good balance and conscience. The grand final was climbing up a rickety steel ladder attached to a wall at the back of the cathedral and seeing the skeleton nicknamed the ice maiden perfectly laid out seemingly at peace to meet her sacrificial end. Most likely she was made high on magic mushrooms first as was their way. Not so at rest was the skeleton of a teenage boy who had been left facing a wall with both arms and legs broken, whether left alive or dead is unknown but either way was very tragic for him.

Already our brief stay in Belize was over and despite the lack of law we had no problems. Next was Guatemala...

Photos: www.katmarty.smugmug.com