This blog was written in 2010 as a travel diary to my friends back home wanting to know how I was doing on my 8-month trip. Now that my journey is over, for now anyway, other users might find it more useful to find specifically entries about places they are thinking of visiting. So here you go - a table of contents!
I recommend checking out the last entry in November for useful tips on packing, budget, ect.
January
- Getting started
March
* Mexico:Mexico city, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chamula, Palenque
* Guatemala: Flores, Tikal, Río Dulce
April
* Guatemala: Guatemala city, Antigua, lake Atitlán
* Mexico: Tapachula, Oaxaca, Mexico city
* Argentina: Buenos Aires, Rosario, Santa Fe, Concepcion del Uruguay
* Uruguay: Tacuarembo
May
* Uruguay: Montevideo, Punta del Este, Maldonado, Punta del Diablo
* Brazil: Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, Curitiba, Ilha do Mel
* Paraguay: Asunción
June
* Brazil: Iguazu falls, São Paulo, Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro, Presidente Prudente
July
* Brazil: Pantanal
* Bolivia: Quijarro, Santa Cruz, Samaipata, Sucre, Potosí, Uyuni, La Paz, lake Titicaca, Coroico
August
* Peru: Puno, Arequipa, Camaná, Ica, Pisco, Paracas, Ballesta islands, Lima, Negritos
* Equador: Cuenca, Baños, Quito
* Colombia: Pasto
September
* Colombia: Popayán, Armenia, Bógota, Medellin, Cartegena, Taganga
* Panamá: Panamá city, Esmeralda, Bocas del Toro, Boquete
* Costa Rica: Ciudad Neilly, Dominical
October
* Costa Rica: Manuel Antonio, San José
* Nicaragua: Rivas, Ometepe island, Granada, Estelí
* Honduras: Danlí, Tegucigalpa, lake Yojoa, Roatan
* El Salvador: San Salvador, Santa Tecla, Juayúa
* Guatemala: Cobán, Semuc Champey
November
* Guatemala: Guatemala city, Sumpango
* U.S. : New York
- The end: top places, lessons learned, tips, budget, ect.
more...
02 January 2011
06 November 2010
Time to wrap it up!
Top places visited (even though putting these in order is really hard and probably quite pointless
1) Finca paraiso, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
2) Semuc Champey, Guatemala
3) Coroico & Yungas road, Bolivia
4) Iguazu falls, Argentina/Brazil
5) Ilha do mel, Brazil
6) Pantanal, Brazil
7) Islas Ballestas, Peru
8) Volcano Pacaya, Guatemala
9) Ilha de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil
10) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11) Ometepe, Nicaragua
12) Punta del diablo, Uruguay
13) La Paz, Bolivia
14) Cartagena, Colombia
--- under different circumstances also:
15) Bay Islands, Honduras - peak of the rainy season
16) Bocas del toro, Panamá - overdose of tourism
17) Lake Titicaca and Isla del sol, Bolivia/Perú - altitude sickness
18) Uyuni salt flat, Bolivia - altitude sickness
Top 5 countries visited
1) Panama - people, weather and confort at reasonable rates
2) Equador - natural beauty and perfect weather
3) Guatemala - authenticity, nature and very friendly prices
4) Bolivia - totally different from Guatemala but same reasons apply
5) Uruguay - the best bits of Europe and more collected in the middle of South America
The things you get used to(!)
Some things that are weird or impressive at first soon turn into a part of your every-day life. For example:
1) The dozens of men with machine guns on the streets, in shops, in banks, in hotels, ect. are only there for general safety
2) Not having toilet paper or even toilet seats in any public toilets or budjet hotels is not an exception but a rule - "who would SIT on a public toilet anyway?"
3) Humming birds, huge colourful butterflies or herds of howler monkeys are always nice to see, but not really worth getting your camera out for after the first dozen times.
4) Every building has geckos or lizards of different colours and sizes and talking parrots and chained monkeys are at least as common as domestic pets as dogs.
5) Street dogs may bark, but they don't bite. Not even when their seem to run after you in a flock of 20 - the one running in front of the rest is just another bitch in heat ready to get inpregnated like they do every time that happens. Most puppies starve to death if no-one decides to adopt them until they get big and can be dumped to the streets again. Dogs are not pets, but considered more like rats.
6) Hissing, honking, whisling and shouts and whispers like "my love", "hi baby", "hello doll" and "how beautiful" will get to you only if you're tired or allready pissed off by something else. (The ruder, and at times more threatning sounding variants, like "I love so much baby, come here and I'll show you how much", were too much for me to get used to and resulted in nasty comments back to the gentleman in question, either in Spanish or in Finnish)
7) Freshly squeezed fruit juices from fruit you've never even heard of before won't cost you more than a euro per a big glass. Just try to get them "sin azucar".
8) Asking directions from less than 3-5 people to get to one place is waste of your time. People who don't know will send you off into the wrong direction wihout meaning anything bad by it. Ask another 3 and follow the majority. NEVER hop into a taxi without checking with at least one local how much they'd pay for the same journey and making sure your driver agrees to the same amount.
9) You NEVER flush toilet paper. Doing so will cause the toilet to flood. Difficult to remember in the beginning and at least as hard to do the opposite when returning to places with 'normal' plumming after 8 months.
10) Sitting next to a window in a bus can make you really dirty, and buses often leave behind pitch black clouds. Because they are retired and repainted school buses from the States.
Lessons learned
1) I need YOU
I love meeting and getting to meet new peeps whereever I go. But new acquaintances are not really enough for me; I can share nice moments with some new locals and bond with a co-traveller experiencing the same cultural differences as I am, but who can I turn to when I'm simply having a bad day? Why would someone who doesn't know me want to hear about my stomach ache, care about my broken heart or just put up with me when I'm tired and cranky?
A Finnish song tells that you can tell who your true friends are in times of trouble and even though I don't think the past 8 months have been the most problematic ones of my life, but I've sure learned that I need those true friends.
That's YOU I'm talking about (unless you're only reading this to get travel tips or for back stabbing material)!
2) I need to communicate
Not only talking about Facebook now. It was hardest in Brazil where I didn't understand the language, easiest in Bolivia and Peru where I had permanent travel companions. I'm not sure if speaking English or Swedish made a great difference compared to Spanish anymore at this point, but just being able to share things, good and bad, just as they happen, was pretty nice.
At the same time, I also felt it was really important to speak the local language to be able chat with locals: not only the English-speaking ones who only represent a tiny part of the whole population but with anyone; old ladies on buses, construction workers in lunch places, shoe polishers on the street and house wifes in parks.
In the beginning it was hard not to miss the Spanish I learned in Spain, but it got easier along the way, even though every Latin American country and many of the regions within them offered new vocabulary and accents to battle with. Just when you had learned what a certain dish was called in one country, you went to another where it was something totally different.
3) 8 months is too long or 15 countries in 8 months is too much
I think I'd like my future travels (?!) to be shorter trips to more limited areas. Discovering one country in 2-3 months for example. Obviously, besides the airfare costs also the risk of falling in love with one place would increase, but it would definitely be less hectic and enjoyable than jumping from city to another every few days. And where would I go? Well, I didn't get to see Chile, my originally intended destination, and most parts of Argentina yet. Equador and Central America would also deserve more time. But then again, Malaysia, Vietnam and other South-East Asian countries are said to be fashionating too.
4) Not quite a hippie yet
My backpacks (55l+25l) weighted all together 26kg in the beginning of my journey. That included 4kg of textile bags that were presents for my CS hosts, 8 Swedish pocket books I hadn't have time to read, 2 boulders called travel guidebooks, a sleeping bag, a notebook, a good supple of cosmetics and basically everything I could need during the 8 month journey. Many others were a lot happier carrying their 10kg backpacks, but I don't regret my choice. Especially after the textile bags and books (in total 7kg!) were all left behind one by one...
I've learned that even though I travelled on a relatively tight budjet I don't want to give up on everything. I need a clean bed to sleep in, a daily shower and clean clothes. Those who can have the same t-shirt on for 4 days in a row can travel a lot lighter, but I don't really mind that. For the first time in more than ten years I stopped wearing make-up completely, but mainly too look as unattractive as possible (less attention, more safety) and not because my cosmetics bag would've got lighter as a result.
5) Don't book with a travel agency
... no matter how good deal you think you're getting. They won't help you in any way if something goes wrong and you can always find cheaper rates if you just look hard enough. Use Facebook and your bargain hunting expert friends if you're not one yourself!
Packing top picks
1) a front-loader with some extra pockets (I wish I had one)
2) duct/silver tape
3) a head light - try reading on you bed one night holding a regular flash light or going to an outside toilet on a pitch dark night and you'll know
4) a sewing kit
5) a couple of laminated copies of your passport (accepted as official id EVERYWHERE except when crossing borders; in Panamá & Costa Rica you need to carry a copy of your entrance stamp page too)
6) rubber bands – if you want to find your rolled clothes easily and creaseless
7) a couple of combination locks for locking the zippers of your backpack or your room
8) super glue (available at any street corner) for fixing everything from sunglasses & torn backpacks to sandals when you've only got two seconds to spare
9) a head set - all internet places, cibers, don't provide them and youtube videos you just NEED to show to other travellers might be too quiet to hear in noisy dorms
10) a nice notebook - a real one to keep you losing little pieces of paper with important contacts, timetables, addresses, shopping or to-do lists and other information (and which will be full of memories afterwards), and an electronic one if you want to update your blog regularly
All of this stuff, except the backpack, can be bought during the journey too – if you start in a cheap country. It's good to know that good quality travel gear & gadgets and electronics is generally NOT cheaper – European online stores have both better selection and rates.
Get rid of the local currency before you leave the country by exchanging them to dollars for example. On the other side of the border the rates are worse and you won't be able to get rid of your notes at all if you get far enough. For example in Costa Rica there's only one bank, located in the centre of the capital city of course, that will exchange Colombian pesos to dollars.
Budjet
1) flights
• Gothenburg-London-Mexico city-Buenos Aires-Mexico city – London by STA travel, 1294 € (in January 2011 I got a full refund not only for the cancelled flighs but the WHOLE package!)
• Cartagena-Bogota-Pereira-Panamá by Aires, 116 €
• Guatemala-New York-Reykjavik-Helsinki (inc ESTA) by Spirit airlines & Icelandic air, 413 €
2) Heath insurance 8 months, Backpackerförsäkring by Global, 234 €
3) Vaccinations Tyfoid, Hepatitis, Cholera, Yellow fever by Mediservice, 150 €
4) 8 months in Latin America; food, accommodation, travel, entertainment, phone expences, everything, 6900 €
• Cheap food; set lunches, local restaurants and self-catering in Brazil&Costa Rica
• Cheap accommodation or couchsurfing, splurging a bit in Bolivia & Nicaragua
• Cheap buses; comparing prices and finding second class terminals if possible
• Not many crazy nights out and DIY tours rather than organised ones
- The daily average comes to about 29€ per day (863 € per month) but there are great differences in the amount you spend in different countries. Getting by in Brazil, let alone in New York, for 40€ a day takes some effort while as with 20€ you can eat yummy 4-course meals, take pedicures and stay in comfortable hotels in Bolivia.
TOTAL ≈9100 € (-1294€ refund in 01/2011 for the cancelled flights)
NEW TOTAL ≈7800€
Final words
Thank you
- for reading this and for being part of this life I love living!
1) Finca paraiso, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
2) Semuc Champey, Guatemala
3) Coroico & Yungas road, Bolivia
4) Iguazu falls, Argentina/Brazil5) Ilha do mel, Brazil
6) Pantanal, Brazil
7) Islas Ballestas, Peru
8) Volcano Pacaya, Guatemala
9) Ilha de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil
10) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11) Ometepe, Nicaragua
12) Punta del diablo, Uruguay
13) La Paz, Bolivia
14) Cartagena, Colombia
--- under different circumstances also:
15) Bay Islands, Honduras - peak of the rainy season
16) Bocas del toro, Panamá - overdose of tourism
17) Lake Titicaca and Isla del sol, Bolivia/Perú - altitude sickness
18) Uyuni salt flat, Bolivia - altitude sickness
Top 5 countries visited1) Panama - people, weather and confort at reasonable rates
2) Equador - natural beauty and perfect weather
3) Guatemala - authenticity, nature and very friendly prices
4) Bolivia - totally different from Guatemala but same reasons apply
5) Uruguay - the best bits of Europe and more collected in the middle of South America
The things you get used to(!)
Some things that are weird or impressive at first soon turn into a part of your every-day life. For example:
1) The dozens of men with machine guns on the streets, in shops, in banks, in hotels, ect. are only there for general safety
2) Not having toilet paper or even toilet seats in any public toilets or budjet hotels is not an exception but a rule - "who would SIT on a public toilet anyway?"
4) Every building has geckos or lizards of different colours and sizes and talking parrots and chained monkeys are at least as common as domestic pets as dogs.
5) Street dogs may bark, but they don't bite. Not even when their seem to run after you in a flock of 20 - the one running in front of the rest is just another bitch in heat ready to get inpregnated like they do every time that happens. Most puppies starve to death if no-one decides to adopt them until they get big and can be dumped to the streets again. Dogs are not pets, but considered more like rats.
6) Hissing, honking, whisling and shouts and whispers like "my love", "hi baby", "hello doll" and "how beautiful" will get to you only if you're tired or allready pissed off by something else. (The ruder, and at times more threatning sounding variants, like "I love so much baby, come here and I'll show you how much", were too much for me to get used to and resulted in nasty comments back to the gentleman in question, either in Spanish or in Finnish)
7) Freshly squeezed fruit juices from fruit you've never even heard of before won't cost you more than a euro per a big glass. Just try to get them "sin azucar".
8) Asking directions from less than 3-5 people to get to one place is waste of your time. People who don't know will send you off into the wrong direction wihout meaning anything bad by it. Ask another 3 and follow the majority. NEVER hop into a taxi without checking with at least one local how much they'd pay for the same journey and making sure your driver agrees to the same amount.
9) You NEVER flush toilet paper. Doing so will cause the toilet to flood. Difficult to remember in the beginning and at least as hard to do the opposite when returning to places with 'normal' plumming after 8 months.
10) Sitting next to a window in a bus can make you really dirty, and buses often leave behind pitch black clouds. Because they are retired and repainted school buses from the States.
Lessons learned
1) I need YOU
I love meeting and getting to meet new peeps whereever I go. But new acquaintances are not really enough for me; I can share nice moments with some new locals and bond with a co-traveller experiencing the same cultural differences as I am, but who can I turn to when I'm simply having a bad day? Why would someone who doesn't know me want to hear about my stomach ache, care about my broken heart or just put up with me when I'm tired and cranky?
A Finnish song tells that you can tell who your true friends are in times of trouble and even though I don't think the past 8 months have been the most problematic ones of my life, but I've sure learned that I need those true friends. That's YOU I'm talking about (unless you're only reading this to get travel tips or for back stabbing material)!
2) I need to communicate
Not only talking about Facebook now. It was hardest in Brazil where I didn't understand the language, easiest in Bolivia and Peru where I had permanent travel companions. I'm not sure if speaking English or Swedish made a great difference compared to Spanish anymore at this point, but just being able to share things, good and bad, just as they happen, was pretty nice.
At the same time, I also felt it was really important to speak the local language to be able chat with locals: not only the English-speaking ones who only represent a tiny part of the whole population but with anyone; old ladies on buses, construction workers in lunch places, shoe polishers on the street and house wifes in parks.
In the beginning it was hard not to miss the Spanish I learned in Spain, but it got easier along the way, even though every Latin American country and many of the regions within them offered new vocabulary and accents to battle with. Just when you had learned what a certain dish was called in one country, you went to another where it was something totally different.
3) 8 months is too long or 15 countries in 8 months is too much
I think I'd like my future travels (?!) to be shorter trips to more limited areas. Discovering one country in 2-3 months for example. Obviously, besides the airfare costs also the risk of falling in love with one place would increase, but it would definitely be less hectic and enjoyable than jumping from city to another every few days. And where would I go? Well, I didn't get to see Chile, my originally intended destination, and most parts of Argentina yet. Equador and Central America would also deserve more time. But then again, Malaysia, Vietnam and other South-East Asian countries are said to be fashionating too.
4) Not quite a hippie yet
My backpacks (55l+25l) weighted all together 26kg in the beginning of my journey. That included 4kg of textile bags that were presents for my CS hosts, 8 Swedish pocket books I hadn't have time to read, 2 boulders called travel guidebooks, a sleeping bag, a notebook, a good supple of cosmetics and basically everything I could need during the 8 month journey. Many others were a lot happier carrying their 10kg backpacks, but I don't regret my choice. Especially after the textile bags and books (in total 7kg!) were all left behind one by one...
I've learned that even though I travelled on a relatively tight budjet I don't want to give up on everything. I need a clean bed to sleep in, a daily shower and clean clothes. Those who can have the same t-shirt on for 4 days in a row can travel a lot lighter, but I don't really mind that. For the first time in more than ten years I stopped wearing make-up completely, but mainly too look as unattractive as possible (less attention, more safety) and not because my cosmetics bag would've got lighter as a result.
5) Don't book with a travel agency
... no matter how good deal you think you're getting. They won't help you in any way if something goes wrong and you can always find cheaper rates if you just look hard enough. Use Facebook and your bargain hunting expert friends if you're not one yourself!
Packing top picks
1) a front-loader with some extra pockets (I wish I had one)2) duct/silver tape
3) a head light - try reading on you bed one night holding a regular flash light or going to an outside toilet on a pitch dark night and you'll know
4) a sewing kit
5) a couple of laminated copies of your passport (accepted as official id EVERYWHERE except when crossing borders; in Panamá & Costa Rica you need to carry a copy of your entrance stamp page too)
6) rubber bands – if you want to find your rolled clothes easily and creaseless
7) a couple of combination locks for locking the zippers of your backpack or your room
8) super glue (available at any street corner) for fixing everything from sunglasses & torn backpacks to sandals when you've only got two seconds to spare
9) a head set - all internet places, cibers, don't provide them and youtube videos you just NEED to show to other travellers might be too quiet to hear in noisy dorms
10) a nice notebook - a real one to keep you losing little pieces of paper with important contacts, timetables, addresses, shopping or to-do lists and other information (and which will be full of memories afterwards), and an electronic one if you want to update your blog regularlyAll of this stuff, except the backpack, can be bought during the journey too – if you start in a cheap country. It's good to know that good quality travel gear & gadgets and electronics is generally NOT cheaper – European online stores have both better selection and rates.
Get rid of the local currency before you leave the country by exchanging them to dollars for example. On the other side of the border the rates are worse and you won't be able to get rid of your notes at all if you get far enough. For example in Costa Rica there's only one bank, located in the centre of the capital city of course, that will exchange Colombian pesos to dollars.
Budjet
1) flights• Gothenburg-London-Mexico city-Buenos Aires-Mexico city – London by STA travel, 1294 € (in January 2011 I got a full refund not only for the cancelled flighs but the WHOLE package!)
• Cartagena-Bogota-Pereira-Panamá by Aires, 116 €
• Guatemala-New York-Reykjavik-Helsinki (inc ESTA) by Spirit airlines & Icelandic air, 413 €
2) Heath insurance 8 months, Backpackerförsäkring by Global, 234 €
3) Vaccinations Tyfoid, Hepatitis, Cholera, Yellow fever by Mediservice, 150 €
4) 8 months in Latin America; food, accommodation, travel, entertainment, phone expences, everything, 6900 €
• Cheap food; set lunches, local restaurants and self-catering in Brazil&Costa Rica
• Cheap accommodation or couchsurfing, splurging a bit in Bolivia & Nicaragua
• Cheap buses; comparing prices and finding second class terminals if possible
• Not many crazy nights out and DIY tours rather than organised ones
- The daily average comes to about 29€ per day (863 € per month) but there are great differences in the amount you spend in different countries. Getting by in Brazil, let alone in New York, for 40€ a day takes some effort while as with 20€ you can eat yummy 4-course meals, take pedicures and stay in comfortable hotels in Bolivia.
TOTAL ≈9100 € (-1294€ refund in 01/2011 for the cancelled flights)
NEW TOTAL ≈7800€
Final words
Thank you
- for reading this and for being part of this life I love living!
05 November 2010
It's got to be New York, New York!
The check-in lines to Fort Lauderdale (Florida) flight were long and moved slowly at the Guatemala city airport, but arriving three hours before take off made sure I made it in time. For some reason I had never realised Florida was all desert, at least this part of; it didn't look at all like the tropical beach paradise I had imagined it to be. The border of the city from the desert was as sharp as if it would've been cut with a knife, not even one house breaking away from neat rows of buildings.
After passing through the passport control with electronic finger print collection, x-ray shots and good-old fashioned photographs I had fun at the gate observing real life images of American stereotypes all around me: rich and bitchy house wives, loud mouth African american drama queens, obese families in five dollar shorts, glitter loving latinas in too small clothes, over protective mums and annoying teenage cheerleaders were all something I though only existed in movies, or were at least uncommon enough not to be seen all on one flight.
My flight to New York was supposed to leave only two hours after the other one landed, but as everyone had got onboard an announcement asked us to get off due to a technical problem with the aircraft. This meant that I arrived to New York two hours delayed, way past midnight and got to take a late subway ride to Chelsea, to my CS friend Jen's beautiful home. We had met in Uppsala on the day before my stroke and had lots of catching up to do.
After a long walk in the park we strolled around in the Metropolitan museum and took a ride on the Staten island ferry to see the tiny Statue of Liberty.
Our lunch menu was a New York classic, a bagel filled with 2cm layer of cream cheese, and the dinner didn't fall too far behind either, a greasy thick pizza done by 'real italians'. Tastes about a billion times better than it sounds, but it isn't hard to see why obesity is a problem in this country.
The autumn weather continued on Thursday, but this time it was rainy all day - nothing compared to heavy rains in the tropics though – so we went for an authentic brunch at China town and tried shopping at the world's largest department store, Macy´s, only to discover how terrible service can be at its worst. A cute police officer said he was sorry I was leaving, when I asked him which subway line to take to the JFK airport, and asked if I came to New York often – why did this not feel like harassment at all, just amusing, while nearly all comments from Latin American men got me so irritated? Perhaps, because I felt more safe here?
Being in New York felt nice, but at the same time a bit strange. Getting back to western reality with flushable toilet paper, people of different genders that you can treat and that will treat you in the same way, non-home made lunches and everything so well organised made me a bit confused. Like a step closer to home but not quite there yet.
There was no queue to the check-in to Reykjavik at JFK and I didn't even get my money bag stolen when I accidently left it on a chair I sat on in the terminal and came back to look for it 15 minutes later. Not quite what I thought the largest airport in New York would be like. The guy sitting next to me on the flight had a very familiar accent in English and was in fact a Finn, heading to Helsinki on the same flight as me. I was worried of how we'd make it to the next flight with only hour scheduled between them, and the guy laughed – our flight was going to land ahead of the schedule anyway – and we did actually had plenty of time even for breakfast and reading. A guess Icelandair is not quite like Guatemalan chicken buses.
On the flight to Helsinki I sat next to a guy who came to the terminal straight from the pub "which is what always happens on these business trips", and the woman sitting next to him agreed and laughed at his odour, 'the smell of old booze'. I had truly come home to my people.
After my 7 months long and sunny summer, I was a bit sad to go straight to the Finnish winter without seeing my favourite time of year, autumn, first. This is where New York and the Central Park came to the rescue: sunny november day with maples dressed in their most spectacular autumn colours was exactly what I wanted to see.
On the flight to Helsinki I sat next to a guy who came to the terminal straight from the pub "which is what always happens on these business trips", and the woman sitting next to him agreed and laughed at his odour, 'the smell of old booze'. I had truly come home to my people.
04 November 2010
Big kites and goodbyes in Guatemala
I left Semuc Champey on the most Guatemalan way possible: standing at the back of a normal-sized pick-up truck with 30 other people, with the wind in my hair and feeling tall, being literally a head taller than everyone else around me.
Another crowded minibus from Lanquin to Cobán left as soon as I got there but the bus boy and the driver pissed my off by charging me 50% more than everyone else on the bus. The difference was only 10q (1€) but that didn't make it any cooler – if I wanted to pay the gringo prices I would've taken the direct gringo transport all the way with the other tourists. After being persistant, quite vocal and speaking my fastest Spanish, which is apparently pretty fast even on the local standards, I got 5q back, but still felt and told the driver he was just another ladron to watch out for.
At the bus station everyone told me I'd have to take a taxi to get to the central square, or that it would be more than a half an hour walk there. I decided to give it a go anyway and arrived to my hostel, two blocks past the square, 10 minutes later. Incredible how convinced everyone is that I have plenty of extra cash to get rid off.
In Cobán I finally got online after a couple of days in the internet shadow and saw my friend Oscar's message saying that if I wanted to get the stuff I send to Tapachula before Monday (my flight home being on Tuesday) I'd need to get there by Thursday night. The only problem was that I was more than 10 hours bus ride away on Thursday afternoon. After a frantic search for bus companies and their timetables and many messages and calls to Oscar, he came to my rescue by taking some time off from work to pick up my stuff on Friday. So I could take it easy for the night and take a 3am bus to Guate the next morning (4h, 40q, 4€). In the early hours of the morning I checked out the brand new Transmetro local transport system in Guate getting to the South terminal just in time for the 8am bus to the Mexican border (7h, 60q, 6€) and shared a crowded taxi with four locals for the last 15 minutes of the journey (5q, 0,5€).
Having already got used to the hundreds of 'cambio, exchange!' & 'taxi, taxi!' shouts the border crossing went well without too much hassle (Guate exit fee 20q, 2€) and after another half an hour bus ride, wondering around Tapachula unsuccessfully looking for a bank to transfer money to the friend who sent my stuff and taking a local bus to Oscar's place in the middle of Halloween parade transport chaos, I felt this was pretty much all I could take for the day. I didn't have to wait too long to fall asleep when I laid down on the mattress on the floor of Oscar's bedroom and only woke up for three seconds when he came back home from a night out at 3am.
The next morning at 7am I was out on the road again and made my way to Guatemala city the same way I had taken the day before. After I had crossed the border the bus driver told me I had 30 minutes for getting breakfast and showed me the way to a nearby restaurant charging 30q (3€) for the typical Guatemalan day starter. I looked outside, and instead chose the old ladies on the street corner selling something, which turned out to be bread filled with black beans for 2,5q (0,25€) each. With the huge fresh fruit plate from another vendor for 5q (0,5€) my breakfast was complete.
In Guatemala city I managed, even without remembering the hotel name or full street address, to find the same pension, Pension Meza, I had stayed in 6 months earlier and was welcomed in by the same dude who said goodbye to me back then. And just like the last time, my CS friend Luís picked me up for a nice dinner and a couple of beers and again made sure I got back safe and sound.
On Sunday morning I did two hours of efficient gift shopping for the near and dear at home in the Central market place and packed my backpack more full and heavier than it had ever been before with its seams crying in agony. The state of my budjet also looked more worrying than ever, but not spending 5€ here and then buying something half as nice for five times more in Stockholm, when I'd get my first pay in a few months, didn't seem too wise either. You might have to feed me when I get back, but at least you'll get a piece of Guatemalan handicrafts in return. Well worth some noodle soup.
Luís had assigned himself my designated driver, or just happened to be heading to the same direction, and gave me a ride to Antigua and to my new hostel El Caminante (45q, 4,5€) there. I took a nice evening stroll around the city with my old CS host Pampa, who hadn't found a flat yet after his three-month adventure in Europe, so he couldn't host me, but who had promised to take me to the huge kite festival taking place only an hour away from Antigua the next day.
My hostel sucked, or maybe the Halloween night just isn't one of those nights you should even think you could really sleep in a hostel anyway, so I got up at 7am after having slept a half an hour here and there and feeling like I had a hangover, even though unlike Pampa, who looked pretty dead when we met up with him and six other CSers the next morning, I hadn't even had more than two bottles of beer the day before.
The kite festival was awesome. It takes place every year on the 1st November in at least two places near Antigua and the Sumpango celebration in a small village of 2000 inhabitants we took part in is visited by over 100 000 people on just one day.
The kites were colourful, beautiful and indeed gigantic, and crowd around them seemed to be on their best mood; kids flying their small kites and indigenous women all dressed in their most beautiful, handmade outfits.
We walked to the village cemetery decorated with hundreds of flowers and filled with people sitting down on the grass close to their loved one's graves having lunch, eating ice cream or waving incence burners to keep the bad spirits away on this day of the dead.
On the way back to the festival area we tried some new fruit, like litchi and jocote, and some other local delicacies, like grilled black corn and cordobas. With our tummies full of snacks and a little bit of cold beer, it was time to see some kites crashing down.
The idea is perhaps to get them up into the air and from them to stay there, but like most of the crowd, we too enjoyed the failed attempts at least as much as the successful ones. And since only two out of a couple of dozen teams managed to get their kites flying properly, and all other ones had two attempts with each kite, we had plenty to enjoy.
From the European perspective it was hard to understand why the announcers kept on asking people to make more room for the kites and the team members trying to get the kites up for security reasons, but the area wasn't constricted in any way so that some of the people getting too close were hit by huge kites consisting of relatively heavy bamboo structures crushing down on their heads from the height of 5-20 metres. Nobody got killed, but their bruises must have been at least as bad as the throbbing bump on my head after hitting my thick scull into the low roof jumping into a chicken bus on our way to the festival.
We all got home safely and after giving a huge big hug to my favourite waiter Pampa, it was time to get back to Guate again. My last full day in Guatemala and Latin America was over and I didn't feel to bad about getting a bit sun burned knowing that there was no chance of that happening again in the next six months.
My last overcrowded chicken bus ride, my last Guatemalan breakfast, my last sweaty backpack trek in the concrete jungle and my last cold shower for a while – I'll miss them all, I'm sure.
Another crowded minibus from Lanquin to Cobán left as soon as I got there but the bus boy and the driver pissed my off by charging me 50% more than everyone else on the bus. The difference was only 10q (1€) but that didn't make it any cooler – if I wanted to pay the gringo prices I would've taken the direct gringo transport all the way with the other tourists. After being persistant, quite vocal and speaking my fastest Spanish, which is apparently pretty fast even on the local standards, I got 5q back, but still felt and told the driver he was just another ladron to watch out for. At the bus station everyone told me I'd have to take a taxi to get to the central square, or that it would be more than a half an hour walk there. I decided to give it a go anyway and arrived to my hostel, two blocks past the square, 10 minutes later. Incredible how convinced everyone is that I have plenty of extra cash to get rid off.
In Cobán I finally got online after a couple of days in the internet shadow and saw my friend Oscar's message saying that if I wanted to get the stuff I send to Tapachula before Monday (my flight home being on Tuesday) I'd need to get there by Thursday night. The only problem was that I was more than 10 hours bus ride away on Thursday afternoon. After a frantic search for bus companies and their timetables and many messages and calls to Oscar, he came to my rescue by taking some time off from work to pick up my stuff on Friday. So I could take it easy for the night and take a 3am bus to Guate the next morning (4h, 40q, 4€). In the early hours of the morning I checked out the brand new Transmetro local transport system in Guate getting to the South terminal just in time for the 8am bus to the Mexican border (7h, 60q, 6€) and shared a crowded taxi with four locals for the last 15 minutes of the journey (5q, 0,5€).
Having already got used to the hundreds of 'cambio, exchange!' & 'taxi, taxi!' shouts the border crossing went well without too much hassle (Guate exit fee 20q, 2€) and after another half an hour bus ride, wondering around Tapachula unsuccessfully looking for a bank to transfer money to the friend who sent my stuff and taking a local bus to Oscar's place in the middle of Halloween parade transport chaos, I felt this was pretty much all I could take for the day. I didn't have to wait too long to fall asleep when I laid down on the mattress on the floor of Oscar's bedroom and only woke up for three seconds when he came back home from a night out at 3am.
The next morning at 7am I was out on the road again and made my way to Guatemala city the same way I had taken the day before. After I had crossed the border the bus driver told me I had 30 minutes for getting breakfast and showed me the way to a nearby restaurant charging 30q (3€) for the typical Guatemalan day starter. I looked outside, and instead chose the old ladies on the street corner selling something, which turned out to be bread filled with black beans for 2,5q (0,25€) each. With the huge fresh fruit plate from another vendor for 5q (0,5€) my breakfast was complete.
In Guatemala city I managed, even without remembering the hotel name or full street address, to find the same pension, Pension Meza, I had stayed in 6 months earlier and was welcomed in by the same dude who said goodbye to me back then. And just like the last time, my CS friend Luís picked me up for a nice dinner and a couple of beers and again made sure I got back safe and sound.
On Sunday morning I did two hours of efficient gift shopping for the near and dear at home in the Central market place and packed my backpack more full and heavier than it had ever been before with its seams crying in agony. The state of my budjet also looked more worrying than ever, but not spending 5€ here and then buying something half as nice for five times more in Stockholm, when I'd get my first pay in a few months, didn't seem too wise either. You might have to feed me when I get back, but at least you'll get a piece of Guatemalan handicrafts in return. Well worth some noodle soup.
Luís had assigned himself my designated driver, or just happened to be heading to the same direction, and gave me a ride to Antigua and to my new hostel El Caminante (45q, 4,5€) there. I took a nice evening stroll around the city with my old CS host Pampa, who hadn't found a flat yet after his three-month adventure in Europe, so he couldn't host me, but who had promised to take me to the huge kite festival taking place only an hour away from Antigua the next day.
My hostel sucked, or maybe the Halloween night just isn't one of those nights you should even think you could really sleep in a hostel anyway, so I got up at 7am after having slept a half an hour here and there and feeling like I had a hangover, even though unlike Pampa, who looked pretty dead when we met up with him and six other CSers the next morning, I hadn't even had more than two bottles of beer the day before.
The kite festival was awesome. It takes place every year on the 1st November in at least two places near Antigua and the Sumpango celebration in a small village of 2000 inhabitants we took part in is visited by over 100 000 people on just one day.
The kites were colourful, beautiful and indeed gigantic, and crowd around them seemed to be on their best mood; kids flying their small kites and indigenous women all dressed in their most beautiful, handmade outfits.
We walked to the village cemetery decorated with hundreds of flowers and filled with people sitting down on the grass close to their loved one's graves having lunch, eating ice cream or waving incence burners to keep the bad spirits away on this day of the dead.
On the way back to the festival area we tried some new fruit, like litchi and jocote, and some other local delicacies, like grilled black corn and cordobas. With our tummies full of snacks and a little bit of cold beer, it was time to see some kites crashing down.
The idea is perhaps to get them up into the air and from them to stay there, but like most of the crowd, we too enjoyed the failed attempts at least as much as the successful ones. And since only two out of a couple of dozen teams managed to get their kites flying properly, and all other ones had two attempts with each kite, we had plenty to enjoy.
From the European perspective it was hard to understand why the announcers kept on asking people to make more room for the kites and the team members trying to get the kites up for security reasons, but the area wasn't constricted in any way so that some of the people getting too close were hit by huge kites consisting of relatively heavy bamboo structures crushing down on their heads from the height of 5-20 metres. Nobody got killed, but their bruises must have been at least as bad as the throbbing bump on my head after hitting my thick scull into the low roof jumping into a chicken bus on our way to the festival.
We all got home safely and after giving a huge big hug to my favourite waiter Pampa, it was time to get back to Guate again. My last full day in Guatemala and Latin America was over and I didn't feel to bad about getting a bit sun burned knowing that there was no chance of that happening again in the next six months.
My last overcrowded chicken bus ride, my last Guatemalan breakfast, my last sweaty backpack trek in the concrete jungle and my last cold shower for a while – I'll miss them all, I'm sure.
28 October 2010
El Salvador converted me back to a people lover
Getting out from Roatan was just as I thought it would be – a struggle with taxi drivers. A local woman said I could get a collective taxi from West End to the harbour for 2€, the drivers offered me a ride for 16€. I ended up taking a bus to Doxen Hole for 1€ and was there offered a taxi to the harbour for all possible rates from 10€ down jumping finally into one for 1,5€. In La Ceiba a local woman helped me by asking the driver helself for the collective rate to the terminal and I just hopped in instead of her (1,5€). Knowing Spanish doesn't help you at all with these guys, right or wrong hair & skin colour make all the difference.
I got to San Pedro Sula at 8pm and had to wait another 3 hours for the night bus to Nueva Ocotepeque. I didn't quite understand why women were let in the bus first and all chose seats in the front of the bus fairly close to each other, but I was about to find out. I fell asleep in my sleeping bag with my ear plugs on and with my backpack right next to my feet, and woke up about an hour later to check the time and to discover that my old mobile, crappy camera, cheap watch and 6€ worth of money were gone from the side pocket of my backpack. The locked pocket with my notebook, passport and credit card was untouched. The thief didn't slash my backpack and left my camera bag and my wallet, probably so that I wouldn't discover my losses before he was out of the bus. But I did, so I talked to the driver and he told me no-one had got off the bus since we took off, so there was a chance I could get my stuff back. I went back to my seat and talked to the only five guys sitting next to me, knowing that one of them had robbed me. I said I've asked them to turn off the lights again and we can all go back to sleep: if my stuff is back when we wake up we won't have to stop at the police station to get everyone's bags searched.
Half an hour later I could only find my camera batteries on the floor (the battery compartment was a bit broken so they drop off easily), but none of the other stuff. The police didn't find anything either – the thief must've thrown my things off the window when I gave him the chance to do that. A 20-dollar note hidden inside an old lip case gave me a place to stay for the night as well as a bus ticket to the border (12L, 0,5€) and from there to San Salvador (3h, 1,5$, 1€) the next day.
El Salvador impressed me right from the first seconds when the nice border officer explained why they don't put new entrance or exit stamps on your passport when you travel within Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala. Then I missed my camera as we drove through the beautifully decorated village of Palma, with colourfull painted images covering most of the walls, houses and street posts (Google images will give you an idea).
As we got to San Salvador, I got my first introduction to the helpfulness of the local people, as two ladies I asked about the local buses told me they were heading to Santa Tecla too and that we could go together. They told me where to get off and warned me about 'friendly locals'. The same continued throughout the country – everyone I met wanted to help, give directions or even walk me to the place I was heading to without being too pushy, wanting to sell my anything or to get into my pants. The 50 nasty sexual remarks per block in Honduras also went down to two or three happy smiling 'hola bonita's. I soon found myself walking on the streets smiling, without being afraid of getting harassed – what a wonderful feeling!
My CS host Amado showed me around in Santa Tecla and gave some ideas on what to see in San Salvador. For a guy suffering from the first stage of Parkinson's he is remarkable CSer indeed and didn't seem at all worried when after a day of bargain shopping to replace the items I had lost on my last day in Honduras I had bought an old camera (3,2MB with 16MB memory card) for 25$ at a market place that some others on the CS forum a day later did not recommend for a gringo girl travelling alone. You can thank that market place for not having to my read this blog totally without pics from now on, even though trying to enlarge them might not work too well. The sun set pics from a moving bus don't really come out right.
I met up for a vegetarian lunch twice with Lauren, an American girl I had sent a CS request to for my next target city in El Salvador, who also turned out to be a friend of Amado's and a wicked chick to hang out with.
We chatted about my home region towns she had fallen in love with five years ago in Finland and she gave me some priceless tips. I followed her instructions first to the spectacularly beautiful church of El Rosario, then to a huge second hand store in the centre of Santa Tecla selling brand new looking American clothes mainly for 1-8$ per piece (Minna and Julia would've gone crazy – I nearly did too!) and then to the lovely village of Juayúa on the famous Ruta de los flores, 'the flower route', leading from Sansonate, a 1,5h from San Salvador, to Ahuachapán close to the Guatemalan border (under 2$ on the bus).
Casa Maceta (dorm bed for 7$) Lauren had recommended was amazing; full of beautiful interior details, surrounded by peaceful garden and containing currently only two people: American Cody, a long-term guest volunteering in the area, and Jikke, a Dutch girl running the place during the owner's holidays. They first introduced me to pupusas, which is a local delicacy, a corn or rice tortilla baked together with beans, cheese, vegetables, meats or all of these, served with a small salad and some spicy sauce both meant to be spread on top of the tortilla before digging in. After three of these yummies, at the attractive rate of 0,4$ each, I was completely stuffed.
On the following day it was time a delicious lunch at the local weekend food festival and a refreshing swim by some waterfalls a 30-minute walk away. Some of us showed their bravery, some of us their great posing skills and muscles.
Joe, who I had met in the diving centre in Panamá joined us at the hostel and the night out was ready to begin! He drove all four of us to Apaneca for some fun bar hopping and after all the bars had closed some locals invited us to follow them to another place, maybe a hotel(?) owned by a friend of theirs. One of the local guys was celebrating his 30th birthday and just before we left I decided to give him a big kiss as present and rap in the car nearly all the way home – I wonder if the tequila shots someone bought me might've had something to do with this? Well, the morning wasn't too pleasant of course, but after conquering the hangover with chocolate milk, pizza and long skype calls to Anu and Erik, it was nice to chill and watch a movie with my new friends (who are also on CS btw).
I was planning to head to Tapachula in Mexico on Monday the pick up the stuff I had left in Mexico in April, but when I heard that the package send from Mexico city by my friend Carlos had not arrived to Oscar living in Tapachula, I decided to wait a few days and see more of Guatemala on the way.
The day was long: first a bus to Ahuachapán with Jikke (1h, 1$), then off to the border (something similar) and after exchanging only 10 dollars to Guatemalan quetzales believing I'd get to a cash machine soon a four hour bus ride to Guatemala city (25q, 2,5€). As soon as I got to the city, I jumped into a local bus (1q) and arrived to the Cobán bus terminal just in time to find out that the last bus would leave in five minutes. There was no way I'd make it to the closest cash machine but to my great surprise they let me pay my journey (45q, 4,5h) with a credit card. So after a quick lunch at the border and a total of nine hours on three different buses I still had 22q (2€) left, but I was a bit worried whether that would be enough for a dinner and transport to the city from the bus terminal in Cobán. However, my extremely interesting looking, but nice, deep-fried herb dinner, Pacaya, cost only 11q and the bus left my straight at the town main square, so spending my last notes on a cold beer seemed to be in order.
I stayed at Chipi Chipi hostel (dorm 35q , 3,5€) and after a quick run to the cash machine, nice bean&rice&grilled union dinner at one of the street food stands and a big dose of wifi, I was ready to book a gringo transport straight to the place I hadn't had time to visit the last time I was in Guatemala, Semuc Champey (3h, 45q, 4,5€) and have a good night sleep.
The next morning I got on the bus and sat next to English Debbie & Chris, whose names I can still remember probably just because I said I'd forget them in two minutes, studying Spanish by listening to a course on their iPod, but letting me disturb them with my chatter. We arrived to Las Marias hotel (also 35q for dorm) at a beautiful river shore after a pretty but bumpy ride with the rest of the bus continuing to different tours at different rates - about 250q per person for transport and visits to Semuc Champey and Lanquin caves seemed a bit overpriced to me though...
The reason I wanted to get to this place was Mike who I visited the hot waterfalls in Finca Paraiso with six months ago: he told me that if I adored that place I'd love this one too. So I didn't wait too long to hit the natural pools (entrance 50q, 5€, per day) the village was known for and, Mike turned out to be right - the emerald green but cristal clear water in the different pools connected by small waterfalls that you could walk or slide through to get to the next one was a pretty cool sight!
After the last pool you came to a place where most of the river water dived into the depths of a tunnel underneath the pools, but after hearing that four tourists had already taken a closer look at the place and never been found after that, I decided not the get too close to the edge. The first Finnish(!) couple I had seen in 6 months did the same and were still to be found when we walked back to the entrance together an hour later.
After swimming around, bathing in the waterfalls and sunbathing on some rock formations in the middle of it all, I was ready to be reunited with my book for a quiet night at the hotel that shut off the electricity at 10pm anyway. (Unlike the other hostel in the village which didn't have electricity at all.)
On Wednesday I took a morning tour to the near-by caves where residents of my hotel could get the 2 hour tour and river tube the 800m back to the hotel for 40q (4€). I mainly did it for the tubing and in a way it really was the best part of the experience – bring the only part when it was easy to get away from my guide... Guides seem to have interesting ideas of lone female travellers all over Latin America and the vip tour I got was another proof of that. I made up a boyfriend (interestingly called Erik) already when I found out how the groups for this half-swimming, candle-lit tour underground were divided: more than a dozen tourists from different countries with the one guide and me with the other one. They said this was because I was going to get a longer tour since I was staying at the hotel owning the place and the others were on the day tour and in a hurry to their location, but funny enough we were the first ones out of the cave an hour later.
The caves were cool, with interesting rock formations of the walls and in the ceiling, but the guide who was being very helpful offering his hand for support when climbing up the rocks and complimenting my appearance when I sat in the dark cliffs with only a bit of candle light hitting my bikini, made me quite uncomfortable and eager to stay close to the other group skipping all possible detours he recommended. We swam across the deepest bits holding a candle in one hand and climbed from one part of the cave to another, sometimes with a help of a ladder, sometimes just finding the right places to hold your feet or hands on making our way up the slippery rocks. I hurt my legs and arms a couple of times on the rocks hidden underneath the water surface even though the guide did tried to warn about themas best as he could, on the distance of 1km that we entered into the this cave spreading out to 13km in total.
At the very end I was stupid enough to agree to taking a shortcut through a waterfall on our way out and my guide was ready to give a hand as I slipped climbing through the small hole and half of my bikini top fell out of place from the pressure of the water. Surely not planned at all. A really pleasant guide. Sorry, but I'm not familiar with tipping and good luck finding work in tourism in Northern Europe.
The tubing back to the hotel in the sun shine was a lot nicer and after sharing my experience with other ladies at the hotel pier I could even recommend the same tour for a Canadian-Taiwanese couple staying in the room next door – as long as they'd go together.
In the afternoon I returned an (unguided) visit to a view place above the caves, and walked to the gorgeous waterfalls only 15 minutes from our hotel. New arrivals at the hotel kept me company while Kanadian Tyler laid in bed sick fearing it might be malaria. It's funny that everyone is afraid of getting malaria, but no-one seems to be eating pills, like popping two, nearly free tablets a week would be so difficult. Easy to say of course when you don't happen to be one of the people getting nasty side effects.
I got to San Pedro Sula at 8pm and had to wait another 3 hours for the night bus to Nueva Ocotepeque. I didn't quite understand why women were let in the bus first and all chose seats in the front of the bus fairly close to each other, but I was about to find out. I fell asleep in my sleeping bag with my ear plugs on and with my backpack right next to my feet, and woke up about an hour later to check the time and to discover that my old mobile, crappy camera, cheap watch and 6€ worth of money were gone from the side pocket of my backpack. The locked pocket with my notebook, passport and credit card was untouched. The thief didn't slash my backpack and left my camera bag and my wallet, probably so that I wouldn't discover my losses before he was out of the bus. But I did, so I talked to the driver and he told me no-one had got off the bus since we took off, so there was a chance I could get my stuff back. I went back to my seat and talked to the only five guys sitting next to me, knowing that one of them had robbed me. I said I've asked them to turn off the lights again and we can all go back to sleep: if my stuff is back when we wake up we won't have to stop at the police station to get everyone's bags searched.
Half an hour later I could only find my camera batteries on the floor (the battery compartment was a bit broken so they drop off easily), but none of the other stuff. The police didn't find anything either – the thief must've thrown my things off the window when I gave him the chance to do that. A 20-dollar note hidden inside an old lip case gave me a place to stay for the night as well as a bus ticket to the border (12L, 0,5€) and from there to San Salvador (3h, 1,5$, 1€) the next day.
El Salvador impressed me right from the first seconds when the nice border officer explained why they don't put new entrance or exit stamps on your passport when you travel within Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala. Then I missed my camera as we drove through the beautifully decorated village of Palma, with colourfull painted images covering most of the walls, houses and street posts (Google images will give you an idea).
As we got to San Salvador, I got my first introduction to the helpfulness of the local people, as two ladies I asked about the local buses told me they were heading to Santa Tecla too and that we could go together. They told me where to get off and warned me about 'friendly locals'. The same continued throughout the country – everyone I met wanted to help, give directions or even walk me to the place I was heading to without being too pushy, wanting to sell my anything or to get into my pants. The 50 nasty sexual remarks per block in Honduras also went down to two or three happy smiling 'hola bonita's. I soon found myself walking on the streets smiling, without being afraid of getting harassed – what a wonderful feeling!
My CS host Amado showed me around in Santa Tecla and gave some ideas on what to see in San Salvador. For a guy suffering from the first stage of Parkinson's he is remarkable CSer indeed and didn't seem at all worried when after a day of bargain shopping to replace the items I had lost on my last day in Honduras I had bought an old camera (3,2MB with 16MB memory card) for 25$ at a market place that some others on the CS forum a day later did not recommend for a gringo girl travelling alone. You can thank that market place for not having to my read this blog totally without pics from now on, even though trying to enlarge them might not work too well. The sun set pics from a moving bus don't really come out right.
I met up for a vegetarian lunch twice with Lauren, an American girl I had sent a CS request to for my next target city in El Salvador, who also turned out to be a friend of Amado's and a wicked chick to hang out with.
We chatted about my home region towns she had fallen in love with five years ago in Finland and she gave me some priceless tips. I followed her instructions first to the spectacularly beautiful church of El Rosario, then to a huge second hand store in the centre of Santa Tecla selling brand new looking American clothes mainly for 1-8$ per piece (Minna and Julia would've gone crazy – I nearly did too!) and then to the lovely village of Juayúa on the famous Ruta de los flores, 'the flower route', leading from Sansonate, a 1,5h from San Salvador, to Ahuachapán close to the Guatemalan border (under 2$ on the bus).
Casa Maceta (dorm bed for 7$) Lauren had recommended was amazing; full of beautiful interior details, surrounded by peaceful garden and containing currently only two people: American Cody, a long-term guest volunteering in the area, and Jikke, a Dutch girl running the place during the owner's holidays. They first introduced me to pupusas, which is a local delicacy, a corn or rice tortilla baked together with beans, cheese, vegetables, meats or all of these, served with a small salad and some spicy sauce both meant to be spread on top of the tortilla before digging in. After three of these yummies, at the attractive rate of 0,4$ each, I was completely stuffed. 
On the following day it was time a delicious lunch at the local weekend food festival and a refreshing swim by some waterfalls a 30-minute walk away. Some of us showed their bravery, some of us their great posing skills and muscles.
Joe, who I had met in the diving centre in Panamá joined us at the hostel and the night out was ready to begin! He drove all four of us to Apaneca for some fun bar hopping and after all the bars had closed some locals invited us to follow them to another place, maybe a hotel(?) owned by a friend of theirs. One of the local guys was celebrating his 30th birthday and just before we left I decided to give him a big kiss as present and rap in the car nearly all the way home – I wonder if the tequila shots someone bought me might've had something to do with this? Well, the morning wasn't too pleasant of course, but after conquering the hangover with chocolate milk, pizza and long skype calls to Anu and Erik, it was nice to chill and watch a movie with my new friends (who are also on CS btw).
I was planning to head to Tapachula in Mexico on Monday the pick up the stuff I had left in Mexico in April, but when I heard that the package send from Mexico city by my friend Carlos had not arrived to Oscar living in Tapachula, I decided to wait a few days and see more of Guatemala on the way.
The day was long: first a bus to Ahuachapán with Jikke (1h, 1$), then off to the border (something similar) and after exchanging only 10 dollars to Guatemalan quetzales believing I'd get to a cash machine soon a four hour bus ride to Guatemala city (25q, 2,5€). As soon as I got to the city, I jumped into a local bus (1q) and arrived to the Cobán bus terminal just in time to find out that the last bus would leave in five minutes. There was no way I'd make it to the closest cash machine but to my great surprise they let me pay my journey (45q, 4,5h) with a credit card. So after a quick lunch at the border and a total of nine hours on three different buses I still had 22q (2€) left, but I was a bit worried whether that would be enough for a dinner and transport to the city from the bus terminal in Cobán. However, my extremely interesting looking, but nice, deep-fried herb dinner, Pacaya, cost only 11q and the bus left my straight at the town main square, so spending my last notes on a cold beer seemed to be in order.
I stayed at Chipi Chipi hostel (dorm 35q , 3,5€) and after a quick run to the cash machine, nice bean&rice&grilled union dinner at one of the street food stands and a big dose of wifi, I was ready to book a gringo transport straight to the place I hadn't had time to visit the last time I was in Guatemala, Semuc Champey (3h, 45q, 4,5€) and have a good night sleep.
The next morning I got on the bus and sat next to English Debbie & Chris, whose names I can still remember probably just because I said I'd forget them in two minutes, studying Spanish by listening to a course on their iPod, but letting me disturb them with my chatter. We arrived to Las Marias hotel (also 35q for dorm) at a beautiful river shore after a pretty but bumpy ride with the rest of the bus continuing to different tours at different rates - about 250q per person for transport and visits to Semuc Champey and Lanquin caves seemed a bit overpriced to me though...
The reason I wanted to get to this place was Mike who I visited the hot waterfalls in Finca Paraiso with six months ago: he told me that if I adored that place I'd love this one too. So I didn't wait too long to hit the natural pools (entrance 50q, 5€, per day) the village was known for and, Mike turned out to be right - the emerald green but cristal clear water in the different pools connected by small waterfalls that you could walk or slide through to get to the next one was a pretty cool sight!
After the last pool you came to a place where most of the river water dived into the depths of a tunnel underneath the pools, but after hearing that four tourists had already taken a closer look at the place and never been found after that, I decided not the get too close to the edge. The first Finnish(!) couple I had seen in 6 months did the same and were still to be found when we walked back to the entrance together an hour later.
After swimming around, bathing in the waterfalls and sunbathing on some rock formations in the middle of it all, I was ready to be reunited with my book for a quiet night at the hotel that shut off the electricity at 10pm anyway. (Unlike the other hostel in the village which didn't have electricity at all.)
On Wednesday I took a morning tour to the near-by caves where residents of my hotel could get the 2 hour tour and river tube the 800m back to the hotel for 40q (4€). I mainly did it for the tubing and in a way it really was the best part of the experience – bring the only part when it was easy to get away from my guide... Guides seem to have interesting ideas of lone female travellers all over Latin America and the vip tour I got was another proof of that. I made up a boyfriend (interestingly called Erik) already when I found out how the groups for this half-swimming, candle-lit tour underground were divided: more than a dozen tourists from different countries with the one guide and me with the other one. They said this was because I was going to get a longer tour since I was staying at the hotel owning the place and the others were on the day tour and in a hurry to their location, but funny enough we were the first ones out of the cave an hour later.
The caves were cool, with interesting rock formations of the walls and in the ceiling, but the guide who was being very helpful offering his hand for support when climbing up the rocks and complimenting my appearance when I sat in the dark cliffs with only a bit of candle light hitting my bikini, made me quite uncomfortable and eager to stay close to the other group skipping all possible detours he recommended. We swam across the deepest bits holding a candle in one hand and climbed from one part of the cave to another, sometimes with a help of a ladder, sometimes just finding the right places to hold your feet or hands on making our way up the slippery rocks. I hurt my legs and arms a couple of times on the rocks hidden underneath the water surface even though the guide did tried to warn about themas best as he could, on the distance of 1km that we entered into the this cave spreading out to 13km in total.
At the very end I was stupid enough to agree to taking a shortcut through a waterfall on our way out and my guide was ready to give a hand as I slipped climbing through the small hole and half of my bikini top fell out of place from the pressure of the water. Surely not planned at all. A really pleasant guide. Sorry, but I'm not familiar with tipping and good luck finding work in tourism in Northern Europe.
The tubing back to the hotel in the sun shine was a lot nicer and after sharing my experience with other ladies at the hotel pier I could even recommend the same tour for a Canadian-Taiwanese couple staying in the room next door – as long as they'd go together.
In the afternoon I returned an (unguided) visit to a view place above the caves, and walked to the gorgeous waterfalls only 15 minutes from our hotel. New arrivals at the hotel kept me company while Kanadian Tyler laid in bed sick fearing it might be malaria. It's funny that everyone is afraid of getting malaria, but no-one seems to be eating pills, like popping two, nearly free tablets a week would be so difficult. Easy to say of course when you don't happen to be one of the people getting nasty side effects.
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