Granada, Nicaragua

 After spending a scary and lonely night in Managua, I took a cab early morning to pick up Pedro at the airport. I went hours earlier to the airport because I did not want to be in the dodgy neighborhood I had spent the night. His flight was super late, but during that time I recruited a following of little children who sat around me watching me make bracelets sitting on the airport floor. I gave all of the ones I had made away and Pedro arrived to participate in my adventure. We negotiated a ride and went straight to Granada and to the great Bearded Monkey hostel, with a beautiful indoor garden pation, hammocks and a bar.

Pedro and I were starving so we walked around the town and decided to eat at a small restaurant with tables on a park. There we tried a typical dish of mashed Yucca with a type of cole slaw and and some pork for Pe, it was very different with an interesting taste, but I really enjoyed and have since really enjoyed eating yucca.

At the hostel we ran into Tom, Becks and Ayako who I met briefly in Antigua, and together we got a crew to go on a little tour of Lago de Nicaragua which has hundreds of islands. Party boat time.

You have to pay just to look

One of the islands we floated around was filled with monkeys

One of them decided to come on the boat and greet us

Pedro, Ayako and I swimming in the lake during our lunch.

Delicious Lunch!!!!

Love it!

Another visit, this time we had food

After our great day on the lake we went back to the hostel to rest and there we ran into Lauren and Nath, who I had plans to spend christmas with in San Juan. We all decided to get together and have a night out.

Tom and Ayako

Nath and I

Lozza and Nath

                               

After a really interesting dinner at a restaurant in a not so good area, with dirt floors and expensive food, but with the advantage that you could buy a whole bottle of Flor de Caña rum and have it served on your table, which got us all a little bit too excited, I went to bed dead and in the next morning we all got together and decided it was time we headed to the beach since we were all aching for a bit of sun and salt water in our bodies and were waiting anxiously to celebrate our wonderful christmas with 3 new guests in San Juan.

Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua Guatemala is a beautiful city surrounded by volcanoes, with cobble streets and colorful buildings. It is also a city I could stay for a really long time. There are restaurants and cafes, the people are really nice and it was a city between places where I had a lot of fun. I was in Antigua before Semuc Champey, but the time I spent after with my new friends was amazing.

One of the volcanoes around the city

Music in the streets

The Devil at Buring of the Devil

There is  a festival in all of Guatemala called Burning of the Devil, and I was in Antigua that night and went with a group of friends I had made at the hostel. The festival consists of Devil statues being burned at the end of the day, with music, beer tents and lots of street food vendors. It was packed and people were dancing in the streets and surprisingly the festival started on time and by the time we got there, 10 minutes late the Devil was already burning. When the Devil was almost gone, a crazy man with fire works attached to a wodden structure he was wearing came running into the street with fireworks shooting everywhere and people running in all directions. It was hilarious and pretty scary at the same time. I later had a corn and some bean with cheese tostada from the street vendors and after went out with my friends from the hostel.

Being burned

Crazy man with fireworks attached to him running around town

One of my new friends at the hostel was Aylon, who is Israeli and was travelling trough Central America after serving in the army. We were in Antigua during Chanukah and Lauren and I decided we would have a little party celebration with jelly doughnuts included. It was a beautiful celebration with lots of singing, eating and later some delicious Ron Zacappa accompanied by our new favorite game mushroom of death ( king´s cup with some interesting additions).

Our dinner for a Chanukah

Aylon lighting the candles and singing

Mushroom of death

Jordan, Nath and I

Aylon and I

Danny with his prize from the Air Guitar contest

The group in front of Black Cat Hostel

After one of the many party nigths we had in Antigua I decided to partake in one of the most popular activities around town, hike up Pacaya, the active volcano near the city. It was an amazing climb, through hills, trees and finally up the volcano with all of its loose hard lava that every three steps up you slide on back and feel like you are hiking up a sand dune. As you get to the top you can feel the heat of the lava, it was a really intense feeling being so close to lava, stepping on hard lava that was still hot, feeling the heat and at some times I was actually scared of being too close and had to move away. It is with experiences like this that I think about all of the rules and regulations that the U.S. has and how many things we are being kept away from and how many different emotions we dont experience because of so many rules. Watching the lava slowly flow, the sunset on top of the volcano, and finally the glowing lava down the mountain after dark was incredible and unforgettable.

Lava flow at Pacaya

The view from the top

More lava

Marshmallows

Although we all were having an amazing time in Antigua it was time to move on again. Lauren, Nate, Danny, Jordan, Sean, Connie and I pulled names out of a hat for our secret santa, made plans to meet again in San Juan Del Sur in Nicaragua and parted ways. I got on a bus that would cross through El Salvador and drop me off in Managua to meet my first visitor: Pedro!! 

Nuevos Amigos y Semuc Champey, Guatemala

After leaving Panajachel and the lake I went to Antigua Guatemala, which is a beautiful colorful city surrounded by volcanoes. When I arrived there I ran into Jonny and Claudine who I had met during the volcano climb in Xela. The next day I was in a van with Jonny and the two Australians Danny and Sean,  on our way to Lankin and Semuc Champey. It was an intense drive, with no driving map of Guatemala, only a small portion left over from the Mexico driving maps, there was a lot of asking for direction, stopping in little towns and pretty much taking the one road that passed by every small village as well as Guatemala City on the way there. Danny and Sean had been driving the van since California and surfing theis way down trhough Mexico and now Central America.

Danny with his bean paste on one of our food stops

We thought it was going to be a five hour drive, that later turned into 8 hrs and a great part of it was in a small windy dirt road, which we approached a it got dark. Johny Utah (the great white van) gave us a few scares on the way, one of them consiting of Sean screaming ¨I have no brakes, I can´t stop¨ while driving downhill in the small road on our way to Lankin. For a few minutes we were all holding on and freaking out with Sean deciding that the only way we could stop is if we run the car into a wall so that we won´t lose control and fall of the cliff. Thankfully we were able to stop when an uphill came and we all rested for a bit, thinking of our next plan and letting the brakes cool. It was dark, we were tired and just wanted to arrive so we got back in the car and with  little brakes were able to arrive at the lodge, where Utah decides to fall into a deep sleep and not turn back on. So we had to push him into his parking spot.

Utah being checked out by some very difficult to find and convince to work mechanics.

Sean, worried and waiting...

After two days of looking for mechanics, having electrical mechanics from other towns come into Lankin to check out Utah, different diagnosis, the help of a local expat, many money negotiations, trips to the bank, and hammock time while waiting, a minor problem was found, Utah was fixed (sorta) and we began our fun

We signed up for a tour of caves and Semuc Champey through the place we were staying and the next day all of us and other people hopped in the back of a pick-up and drove the first adventure of the day: Caves. Before getting into the caves we all stripped down to our bathing suits and tied our flip-flops to our feet. Each grabbed a candle and followed the guide to one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had. Our candles were lit and with water up to our waist we began to explore the dark caves filled with bats over our heads. As a group we climbed rocks with waterfalls splashing on us, swam holding candles in our mouths and jumped into small dark holes not knowing where we would end up. After the caves we had some fun with a giant swing that would drop us in the river, explored waterfalls, jumped off some small cliffs and then went to a small hike to explore Semuc Champey and swim in the beautiful lagoons.  

El Grupo

 Floating down the river

 

 

Crazy hole we jumped into in the cave 

 

 

Semuc Champey view from the mirador

Semuc Chmapey lagoons

Semuc Champey is where my van trip with the Aussies began and also  where we met Lauren and Nath who were staying in the cabaña above us. After a few hours of talking we had made friends for life who we would travel with for the rest of Central America.