after this very ecological trip to ometepe it was time to get all un-ecological and go for our final destination: san juan del sur. this is a little town on the pacific coast of nicaragua, which used to be a little fishing village but nowadays is full of primarily american tourists doing surfing.
on the last day on ometepe marianne and camille managed to catch a cold, probably due to chilling in that lake for too long. according to them the sunset in the lake cocibolca was just amazing and so they refused to get out of the water before it was completely dark. well, with two mildly sick patients the choice was simple: take a taxi to san juan del sur from rivas. once here in this little surfing paradise it was at first hard to find accomodation, since it ranges from quite expensive to very cheap (and uncomfortable). in the end we did spot an ok place to crash and well the days spent in san juan del sur have been very tourist-like, full of bathing in the sea and enjoying those amazing waves. surfing classes as a recreational option were kind of omitted in the end, and we just did our best at sunbathing and swimming. at around 5pm we´d get our ice-creams and sit down to watch the sunset, which is just spectacular here. the richness of colours in the sky is just stunning.
san juan del sur is full of hotels and tourists, however, that is not a reason why they would not just randomly cut off electricity for some 16h on sunday. we were told that this happens due to some construction works nearby. well, makes sense, who needs electricity on sunday anyway?and quite naturally if you don´t need light you don´t need running water either. so, sunday was interesting in this sense. we thought that after all that time in remoted places we finally were in civilization, but well that doesn´t still mean that electicity and water supply can not be cut off any day. appearently it was worse still a couple of years ago.
our holidays are approaching their end, it looks like the sunny days for us are almost over, since according to the last weather forecasts miami is suffering from heavy rains and possibly hurricanes and weather in finland is getting in an autumn mood as well. today marianne and i are going to leave camille here for one more day and head to managua, from where our bus to san pedro sula leaves at 5am tomorrow and hence our long and tiring journey home is about to start. these last days in san juan del sur with all those relaxing activities (includes camille and marianne going out in the sea fishing with some local fishermen) are almost over and now it´s time to start thinking how to pack those machetes and rum bottles in the best and safest way, so that they actually make it all the way home and don´t decide to stay in miami.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
15th of august
leaving the town of rivas on the 12th of august did not go as smoothly as we planned. the reason being: we simply slept in. the day before i decided it was time to buy some kind of a clock, an alarm device so that we´d get up at 6am and head to the island of ometepe. obviously a clock that costs less than a dollar does not have a guarantee and it kept showing 4am even though the sun was shining and definitely indicated that it was past 6am. well, not a problem. we got up and went to the nearest agricultural equipment store to buy some....machetes. now all of us are officially armed with el salvadorian machetes, marianne got herself the longest one, so it is still a puzzle how that thing is going to fit in her backpack and what the miami officials are going to think of it. there is only one way to find out: at the miami airport on the 22nd of august.
finally made it to the island of ometepe. got a ferry at 2pm i believe and enjoyed a pleasant trip full of sun and mp3 provided music. all of us learned our lesson, so the first thing was to cover the backpacks and handbags with plastic and then put a loooot of that sunscreen lotion on the face. obviously this time the ferry trip was a piece of cake, a sweet promenade in comparison with the previous ferry ride in the carribean sea. lake nicaragua (cocibolca) is lovely in this sense. warm water, hardly any waves and the most magnificent views. it is actually so huge that it resembles a sea. one can not see the other side of the lake, only two amazingly beautiful volcanoes rising from the water and forming an island of ometepe. the clouds usually cover the tops of the volcanoes so there are constantly slightly hidden by those funny, weirdly shaped clouds.
once on the actual island we had to figure out the way to take us to our destination: an ecological farm el zopilote. it was raining by the time we got to that spot and it surely was a streneous climb since the farm is situated on the hill and the road there is covered in mud and stones. any moment i thought someone was going to slide down the hill with the heavy backpack and the rest of the stuff carried in hands. luck was on our side, nevertheless, and we made it all the way to the reception. the italian boys on the corn island recommended el zopilote to us and well, the place is very ecological!everything is recycled and very simple. one can sleep in a hammock for like 2 dollars in the midst of a wild life. that was camille´s choice. marianne and i settled for a double bed in a dorm, and were quite glad with that choice. despite the place lacking any civilization except for the electricity it had an amazing atmosphere. first of all its location is great: very close to the beach or just a pier for swimming in the lake (marianne and i liked that a lot), right next to the volcano (8h hikes available every day, once again camille opted for this entertainment) and well generally in the nature. hens and pigs running around all the time, giving it a real countryside touch. the owner of zopilote is an italian guy of some 30 years of age. (no wonder those italians were so excited about the place) he is this most chilled out person ever who apart from everything else prepares the most amazing pizzas (real italian style in a real big oven) and his all being emphasizes the values of his farm: piece and respect to the nature. he also grows all sort of interesting herbs himself, so everything is virtually grown and made at the farm.
people we met at zopilote during our 4 days on the island are also difinitely worth a word or two. lots of europeans especially from germany. then this real character called loca from taiwan who proudly explained to everyone where taiwan was and how beautiful the island is and showed at least 10 times a video on his phone "taiwan will touch your heart", and many other backpackers taking latin america by storm. got a lot of new ideas regarding future travelling in this region.
our 4 days on ometepe went quickly by as we had things to do every day. my definite number 1 activity was riding a horse along the beach of the lake, though visiting the watersprings "ojos de agua" with thermal water was also very pleasant. crystal clear chilly water. the only negative memory was being bitten by some kind of a waspy like insect and watching my finger turning red and inflamed but even that didn´t ruin the experience. after all when it comes to insects here, one just has to get used to sleeping in a bed with possibly ants, cockroaches, spiders etc. i think i even developed an extra sharp reflex to anything touching me even slightly: jump 2m away from that spot instantly.
all in all ometepe was a friendly countryside place, which despite its 80% official unemployment rate is probably becoming an ever more attractive tourist destination, and it is completely uderstandable.
finally made it to the island of ometepe. got a ferry at 2pm i believe and enjoyed a pleasant trip full of sun and mp3 provided music. all of us learned our lesson, so the first thing was to cover the backpacks and handbags with plastic and then put a loooot of that sunscreen lotion on the face. obviously this time the ferry trip was a piece of cake, a sweet promenade in comparison with the previous ferry ride in the carribean sea. lake nicaragua (cocibolca) is lovely in this sense. warm water, hardly any waves and the most magnificent views. it is actually so huge that it resembles a sea. one can not see the other side of the lake, only two amazingly beautiful volcanoes rising from the water and forming an island of ometepe. the clouds usually cover the tops of the volcanoes so there are constantly slightly hidden by those funny, weirdly shaped clouds.
once on the actual island we had to figure out the way to take us to our destination: an ecological farm el zopilote. it was raining by the time we got to that spot and it surely was a streneous climb since the farm is situated on the hill and the road there is covered in mud and stones. any moment i thought someone was going to slide down the hill with the heavy backpack and the rest of the stuff carried in hands. luck was on our side, nevertheless, and we made it all the way to the reception. the italian boys on the corn island recommended el zopilote to us and well, the place is very ecological!everything is recycled and very simple. one can sleep in a hammock for like 2 dollars in the midst of a wild life. that was camille´s choice. marianne and i settled for a double bed in a dorm, and were quite glad with that choice. despite the place lacking any civilization except for the electricity it had an amazing atmosphere. first of all its location is great: very close to the beach or just a pier for swimming in the lake (marianne and i liked that a lot), right next to the volcano (8h hikes available every day, once again camille opted for this entertainment) and well generally in the nature. hens and pigs running around all the time, giving it a real countryside touch. the owner of zopilote is an italian guy of some 30 years of age. (no wonder those italians were so excited about the place) he is this most chilled out person ever who apart from everything else prepares the most amazing pizzas (real italian style in a real big oven) and his all being emphasizes the values of his farm: piece and respect to the nature. he also grows all sort of interesting herbs himself, so everything is virtually grown and made at the farm.
people we met at zopilote during our 4 days on the island are also difinitely worth a word or two. lots of europeans especially from germany. then this real character called loca from taiwan who proudly explained to everyone where taiwan was and how beautiful the island is and showed at least 10 times a video on his phone "taiwan will touch your heart", and many other backpackers taking latin america by storm. got a lot of new ideas regarding future travelling in this region.
our 4 days on ometepe went quickly by as we had things to do every day. my definite number 1 activity was riding a horse along the beach of the lake, though visiting the watersprings "ojos de agua" with thermal water was also very pleasant. crystal clear chilly water. the only negative memory was being bitten by some kind of a waspy like insect and watching my finger turning red and inflamed but even that didn´t ruin the experience. after all when it comes to insects here, one just has to get used to sleeping in a bed with possibly ants, cockroaches, spiders etc. i think i even developed an extra sharp reflex to anything touching me even slightly: jump 2m away from that spot instantly.
all in all ometepe was a friendly countryside place, which despite its 80% official unemployment rate is probably becoming an ever more attractive tourist destination, and it is completely uderstandable.
Monday, August 11, 2008
11th of august
the cabins on little corn island were primitive. the cabin itself had a cement floor, walls made of wood sticks with big holes everywhere and the roof made of just simple sheets of iron. the bathroom was outside as well as the shower. there was no electricity until 6pm and when there was electricity it was turned off at 10pm. water supply in the shower was also rather sporadic. so, all in all a perfect scene for a desert island holiday. the first night we spent in the cabin i couldn´t sleep even a minute. the wind was blowing so hard that it seemed that the cabin, that was situated just some 5m away from the water would not survive until the morning. the heavy showers produced horrible noise inside and well it felt like i was sleeping outside in a tent. not very tempting especially because the first night was the storm night.
in the morning things looked way brighter. there was some sun and we started exploring the island. walking down the beaches, completely wild, many covered in seaweed, swimming here and there, seeing some people occasionally. there would be palmtrees everywhere and a friendly local offered us some fresh "coco de agua", he probably wanted to say coconut milk but was insisting on his version "coconut of a milk". point being the coconut milk was fresh and good. the only problem was that i got severe stomach problems right from the first day we arrived in the island and well kept having them all the time we were there, so the coconut milk was not that good for me after all. this meant i could not really eat anything, just drink, so i spent some 4 days not eating, just drinking coca-cola. we had no clocks on little corn island and so days went by solemnly chilling in hammocks, guided by the sun and hiding away from the rains that actually visited the island all days some 5 times a day. so, in fact there was not that much sun, more rain during our stay on the island.
on the last day even the italians we met on the ferry appeared, so the atmosphere got even more merry. on sunday it was time for us to leave the little corn island and the friendly stuff of the cabin "hotel" offered to take us the pier on their own motorboat. it was a lot of fun for them to see me getting quite scared every time the boat made a surfing move on a wave but well they were inbibing tequila all the time from that one bottle on the boat, so obviously they didn´t feel anything!it was a jolly ride indeed!camille seemed to have the time of her life holding that rope with the rest of the guys and guiding the boat towards ever bigger waves :)
last night on the big corn island was calm and we went to bed early in order to prepare ourselves for the trip to managua next day. by plane.
in the morning things looked way brighter. there was some sun and we started exploring the island. walking down the beaches, completely wild, many covered in seaweed, swimming here and there, seeing some people occasionally. there would be palmtrees everywhere and a friendly local offered us some fresh "coco de agua", he probably wanted to say coconut milk but was insisting on his version "coconut of a milk". point being the coconut milk was fresh and good. the only problem was that i got severe stomach problems right from the first day we arrived in the island and well kept having them all the time we were there, so the coconut milk was not that good for me after all. this meant i could not really eat anything, just drink, so i spent some 4 days not eating, just drinking coca-cola. we had no clocks on little corn island and so days went by solemnly chilling in hammocks, guided by the sun and hiding away from the rains that actually visited the island all days some 5 times a day. so, in fact there was not that much sun, more rain during our stay on the island.
on the last day even the italians we met on the ferry appeared, so the atmosphere got even more merry. on sunday it was time for us to leave the little corn island and the friendly stuff of the cabin "hotel" offered to take us the pier on their own motorboat. it was a lot of fun for them to see me getting quite scared every time the boat made a surfing move on a wave but well they were inbibing tequila all the time from that one bottle on the boat, so obviously they didn´t feel anything!it was a jolly ride indeed!camille seemed to have the time of her life holding that rope with the rest of the guys and guiding the boat towards ever bigger waves :)
last night on the big corn island was calm and we went to bed early in order to prepare ourselves for the trip to managua next day. by plane.
6th of august
camille and marianne were at the bluefields port on wednsday at 6.45am in order to put themselves in a line where people were meant to buy tickets. some 2h later we all at that point were still standing in that line observing how 1 person was writing out tickets to some 200 passengers and making some 4 safety copies, checking ID´s etc. obviously there were smart individuals too who would just sneak in the middle of the line and hence it would take you even more time to get to that distant window with the lady sitting in there. finally with tickets in our hands and our gallo pintos with grilled chickens we were sitting on that ferry. quite naturally we grabbed the best seats ever, on the front part of the boat. once we started consuming our breakfasts it was time however to get off that boat once again and now re-enter it showing the ticket to the captain. what is the point of this system?no idea. once back at our places we were quite content with everything, sitting on those white eskimo freezers, chatting and eating fruit. the boat started heading towards corn islands. the first 20 min were amazing, it was calm and the ferry ride was promissing to be a piece of cake. that is while the ferry still maintained itself in the river. we were chatting with those really nice italian guys matteo and tiziano that were also travelling in nicaragua and the atmosphere was great. it was great until all of a sudden the ferry inclined downwards and then upwards and then the next thing that we felt was a huge wave sweeping us off the eskimo freezers, leaving us and all our valuable belongings and backpacks soaking wet. that was the end of my camera, mobile phone and probably my passport but it was the great beginning of a 5h torture.
camille and marianne are these two odd creatures that do not suffer from seasickness. the rest of the passengers were vomiting non-stop all 5h. i was suffering, holding tight to my freezer and thinking that seasickness pills is indeed a great invention. unfortunately the pill didn´t start working until some 2pm and so i had to sit still, do my best at maintaining my equilibrium at the rodeo session on that freezer and keep the eyes fixed on the horizon. it seemed like forever. once again i was feeling extremely seasick and once again i had no choince but to take another ferry at the carribean sea which is just simply violent. no wonder so many ships actually sank there in the past. it felt like the ferry was going to be swallowed by the sea any given moment. the moment when someone screamed "i can see the shore" was the best news of the day. once we finally arrived in big corn island people were being dragged from there barely alive. we hopped off the ferry and got another boat to the little corn island. at that point it was quite clear that everyone burned their faces very badly so we all looked like boiled crayfish. our backpacks acquired some 5kg of extra weight probably due to all that salty water absorbed by our clothes so when we got to those cabins on the beach on little corn island it felt like a great releif. life was going to get better from now on!
camille and marianne are these two odd creatures that do not suffer from seasickness. the rest of the passengers were vomiting non-stop all 5h. i was suffering, holding tight to my freezer and thinking that seasickness pills is indeed a great invention. unfortunately the pill didn´t start working until some 2pm and so i had to sit still, do my best at maintaining my equilibrium at the rodeo session on that freezer and keep the eyes fixed on the horizon. it seemed like forever. once again i was feeling extremely seasick and once again i had no choince but to take another ferry at the carribean sea which is just simply violent. no wonder so many ships actually sank there in the past. it felt like the ferry was going to be swallowed by the sea any given moment. the moment when someone screamed "i can see the shore" was the best news of the day. once we finally arrived in big corn island people were being dragged from there barely alive. we hopped off the ferry and got another boat to the little corn island. at that point it was quite clear that everyone burned their faces very badly so we all looked like boiled crayfish. our backpacks acquired some 5kg of extra weight probably due to all that salty water absorbed by our clothes so when we got to those cabins on the beach on little corn island it felt like a great releif. life was going to get better from now on!
5th of august
arriving in managua was hectic. there are a lot of people, everyone tries to drag you somewhere, sell you something or cheat you. once we got off that bus from granada the first thing we were told was not to grab just any taxi because taxis are dangerous in managua. a very assuring start.
managed to take ourselves to the hotel mentioned in lonely planet. since streets have no names in this town it is rather challenging to locate any place. while driving about in the taxi asking everyone for the hotel "casa vanegas" we suddenly got a guide in a form of a young guy who promissed to take us there. the driver was sceptic, we were just clueless as to what to do. got to the hotel that had no name on it. in fact we were not even sure it was the hotel we were looking for but since our bags were dragged in the "only" available room for some insane 40 dollars/night price, we just had to follow. it was already back then that we got this slight hunch that maybe we were being cheated. anyway once got the key to the room, the next question was if we were interested in buying something that is considered illegal in all the coutries except holland and jamaica (i presume). we were honestly just baffled but it was curious how the same guy that led us to the hotel was very much insisting on selling us his stuff anyway. all that time we tried to say that the only thing we needed was a taxi and well in 10 min time (a bit too fast actually) there was a taxi at the door ready to take us anywhere.
the driver don bayardo was just all a big smile, overly friendly and of course offered us a whole route around town with him being a guide for a mere sum of 12 dollars/hour. once again that feeling of paying tripple the amount the locals would pay creeped in our minds. the problem was that don bayardo was just way too friendly and i did encourage marianne to have a look at the clock when we left the hotel in order to keep the track of time, because somehow it was quite evident from the beginning that our "friend" was going to make us pay 3 times more than what we should pay. my hunch didn´t let me down. we were driven to quite a few touristic places that happened to be closed just then, took a 30min lunch break and what not and ended up in a heated discussion with the driver regarding the final sum of money we were suppose to pay him. can´t say that this was not typical, but well it still feeled pretty damn unpleasant to be sitting there knowing that you are being cheated and not being able to switch to another option, because of the non-existance of this other option. a day spent in managua was extremely expensive and not very productive but quite entertaining in terms of socializing with the hotel staff. the same guy i mentioned earlier (his name was luis if i´m not completely wrong) was of course around once again when we got back to the hotel and promissed to get his reliable taxi driver friend to take us at 5 am the next day to the bus station on the other side of the town. we negotiated one price, but however once we got to the bus station the next day at 5.30 am the price suddenly rose by some 30% due to some unexpected costs and in the end we got ripped off once again. the taxi did drop us off though right at the bus door because driving to the main entrance and leaving 3 girls with backpacks at 5am to walk some 20m alone is too dangerous in managua. funny how taxi drivers make their profit from the general insecurity of the city. i don´t think anyone wants to take his/her chance in this situation and empirically try to prove the taxi driver wrong. hence, accept to be ripped off.
now it was time to lay back and not even think of when we might get to the town of el rama, situated virtually on the other side of nicaragua. the journey was going to be long. well, the actual journey is only 300km but taking in account the condition of the roads and the type of bus we jumped on, it took us 7,5h. we had plenty of time to listen to every kind of music from cumbia to the world famous rock hits of the 80´s performed in spanish. no one probably even doubted they were not originally written in spanish. we did though and that is why earplugs were put to use at some poing. buying snacks from the sides of the roads every hour also made the travelling quite ok. it was very interesting to notice how the landscape was changing as we were approaching the carribean coast.
once in el rama the next chunk of our journey consisted of taking a motorboat down the river to the town of bluefield. obviously timetables don´t exist for motorboats and we were told to sit back and watch tv until the boat would get full. it was 1.30 pm. first we watched some crazy movie about mexicans in USA, yawning from time to time, then we were an object of interest of little shoepolishing boys that found it particularly odd to watch us sticking contact lenses in the eyes. there were still not enough people for the motorboat to leave. then we started watching another movie, this time french about moliere and i believe it was close to the end of the movie that we were told that the motorboat was going to leave. we got to the boat....in order to figure out that there were 21 passengers and 20 seats on the boat. as a matter of fact i was that 21st passenger who didn´t have a place to sit on the boat!that was when the captain started first encouraging the person without a ticket to stand up and give himself in and then just plainly started verifying everyone´s ID with the data they have about passengers on the paper. it took forever. questions were like "sir, how old are you?wait, you put here that you are 50 but you look much younger!". rediculous business. i was sitting on the pier all that time as the 21st extra passenger wearing the life-jacket. since the captain could not figure out who that extra person was, coast guards appeared and thought we 3 looked particularly dangerous. hence our passports were meticulously examined, questions were made and at some point it seriously looked like they were going to make us get off the boat because of those such suspicious european passports. i was afraid our passports would get dropped in the water or some papers would fly out or something since the coastguard was standing on another boat. eventually after all that half an hour passport control he disappeared in the office. the whole boat was still waiting. now we didn´t even have our passports. (btw i had to dig out that passport literally in front of everyone from my secret pocket inside the pants) some 10 min later that man of an extremely high IQ level appeared and said to us that we only could stay in nicaragua for 7 days. at that point it was our 8th day so according to him we were in nicaragua illegally. amazing. i thanked god that at that point the captain of the motorboat interfered and pointed out that EU citizens were allowed to stay in central america for 90 days without a visa. he then also pointed out that the paper the coastguard was holding and from which he was reading 7 days in fact said 7 dollars and not 7 days. 7 dollars is what we paid at the border with nicaragua when we came from honduras. unbelievable. efficiency at its best. at 5pm we finally got to leave el rama. finally!i was sitting almost in camille´s lap but i was sitting in that boat!in fact we even made an extra stop on the way to bluefields to pick up one more person, so max 20 people/boat is a flexible perception.
so, with our hair looking completely mad after that 1,5h boatride we finally were in bluefields. hurray!exhausted we dragged ourselves to the hotel we checked out from lonely planet. naturally the hotel was full. they guided us to the next hotel nearby. such a damp i´ve never seen in my hole entire life. i thought it was not possible to have a hotel like this: shady people, spider nets on the walls, wallpaint falling off and a strong smell of urine in the corridor. bluefields sweet at your service. a place lonely planet classifies as "definitely stay out of there". it was dark, we were tired and so sleeping was our only desire at that point. i sprayed bug spray on the windows hoping it would keep the cockroaches away. hopefully the mosquitos also stayed away, bluefields is experiencing a wave of dengue fever at the moment. we spent less than 12h in bluefields i think and it seemed like it was way too much.
managed to take ourselves to the hotel mentioned in lonely planet. since streets have no names in this town it is rather challenging to locate any place. while driving about in the taxi asking everyone for the hotel "casa vanegas" we suddenly got a guide in a form of a young guy who promissed to take us there. the driver was sceptic, we were just clueless as to what to do. got to the hotel that had no name on it. in fact we were not even sure it was the hotel we were looking for but since our bags were dragged in the "only" available room for some insane 40 dollars/night price, we just had to follow. it was already back then that we got this slight hunch that maybe we were being cheated. anyway once got the key to the room, the next question was if we were interested in buying something that is considered illegal in all the coutries except holland and jamaica (i presume). we were honestly just baffled but it was curious how the same guy that led us to the hotel was very much insisting on selling us his stuff anyway. all that time we tried to say that the only thing we needed was a taxi and well in 10 min time (a bit too fast actually) there was a taxi at the door ready to take us anywhere.
the driver don bayardo was just all a big smile, overly friendly and of course offered us a whole route around town with him being a guide for a mere sum of 12 dollars/hour. once again that feeling of paying tripple the amount the locals would pay creeped in our minds. the problem was that don bayardo was just way too friendly and i did encourage marianne to have a look at the clock when we left the hotel in order to keep the track of time, because somehow it was quite evident from the beginning that our "friend" was going to make us pay 3 times more than what we should pay. my hunch didn´t let me down. we were driven to quite a few touristic places that happened to be closed just then, took a 30min lunch break and what not and ended up in a heated discussion with the driver regarding the final sum of money we were suppose to pay him. can´t say that this was not typical, but well it still feeled pretty damn unpleasant to be sitting there knowing that you are being cheated and not being able to switch to another option, because of the non-existance of this other option. a day spent in managua was extremely expensive and not very productive but quite entertaining in terms of socializing with the hotel staff. the same guy i mentioned earlier (his name was luis if i´m not completely wrong) was of course around once again when we got back to the hotel and promissed to get his reliable taxi driver friend to take us at 5 am the next day to the bus station on the other side of the town. we negotiated one price, but however once we got to the bus station the next day at 5.30 am the price suddenly rose by some 30% due to some unexpected costs and in the end we got ripped off once again. the taxi did drop us off though right at the bus door because driving to the main entrance and leaving 3 girls with backpacks at 5am to walk some 20m alone is too dangerous in managua. funny how taxi drivers make their profit from the general insecurity of the city. i don´t think anyone wants to take his/her chance in this situation and empirically try to prove the taxi driver wrong. hence, accept to be ripped off.
now it was time to lay back and not even think of when we might get to the town of el rama, situated virtually on the other side of nicaragua. the journey was going to be long. well, the actual journey is only 300km but taking in account the condition of the roads and the type of bus we jumped on, it took us 7,5h. we had plenty of time to listen to every kind of music from cumbia to the world famous rock hits of the 80´s performed in spanish. no one probably even doubted they were not originally written in spanish. we did though and that is why earplugs were put to use at some poing. buying snacks from the sides of the roads every hour also made the travelling quite ok. it was very interesting to notice how the landscape was changing as we were approaching the carribean coast.
once in el rama the next chunk of our journey consisted of taking a motorboat down the river to the town of bluefield. obviously timetables don´t exist for motorboats and we were told to sit back and watch tv until the boat would get full. it was 1.30 pm. first we watched some crazy movie about mexicans in USA, yawning from time to time, then we were an object of interest of little shoepolishing boys that found it particularly odd to watch us sticking contact lenses in the eyes. there were still not enough people for the motorboat to leave. then we started watching another movie, this time french about moliere and i believe it was close to the end of the movie that we were told that the motorboat was going to leave. we got to the boat....in order to figure out that there were 21 passengers and 20 seats on the boat. as a matter of fact i was that 21st passenger who didn´t have a place to sit on the boat!that was when the captain started first encouraging the person without a ticket to stand up and give himself in and then just plainly started verifying everyone´s ID with the data they have about passengers on the paper. it took forever. questions were like "sir, how old are you?wait, you put here that you are 50 but you look much younger!". rediculous business. i was sitting on the pier all that time as the 21st extra passenger wearing the life-jacket. since the captain could not figure out who that extra person was, coast guards appeared and thought we 3 looked particularly dangerous. hence our passports were meticulously examined, questions were made and at some point it seriously looked like they were going to make us get off the boat because of those such suspicious european passports. i was afraid our passports would get dropped in the water or some papers would fly out or something since the coastguard was standing on another boat. eventually after all that half an hour passport control he disappeared in the office. the whole boat was still waiting. now we didn´t even have our passports. (btw i had to dig out that passport literally in front of everyone from my secret pocket inside the pants) some 10 min later that man of an extremely high IQ level appeared and said to us that we only could stay in nicaragua for 7 days. at that point it was our 8th day so according to him we were in nicaragua illegally. amazing. i thanked god that at that point the captain of the motorboat interfered and pointed out that EU citizens were allowed to stay in central america for 90 days without a visa. he then also pointed out that the paper the coastguard was holding and from which he was reading 7 days in fact said 7 dollars and not 7 days. 7 dollars is what we paid at the border with nicaragua when we came from honduras. unbelievable. efficiency at its best. at 5pm we finally got to leave el rama. finally!i was sitting almost in camille´s lap but i was sitting in that boat!in fact we even made an extra stop on the way to bluefields to pick up one more person, so max 20 people/boat is a flexible perception.
so, with our hair looking completely mad after that 1,5h boatride we finally were in bluefields. hurray!exhausted we dragged ourselves to the hotel we checked out from lonely planet. naturally the hotel was full. they guided us to the next hotel nearby. such a damp i´ve never seen in my hole entire life. i thought it was not possible to have a hotel like this: shady people, spider nets on the walls, wallpaint falling off and a strong smell of urine in the corridor. bluefields sweet at your service. a place lonely planet classifies as "definitely stay out of there". it was dark, we were tired and so sleeping was our only desire at that point. i sprayed bug spray on the windows hoping it would keep the cockroaches away. hopefully the mosquitos also stayed away, bluefields is experiencing a wave of dengue fever at the moment. we spent less than 12h in bluefields i think and it seemed like it was way too much.
Monday, August 4, 2008
4th of august
saturday was marked by the arrival of camille, my dear friend from paris who was on exchange in spain at the same time as i was. camille arrived glad, saying how she adors everything after spending some weeks in US and demanded an update on the current situation as well as on the plans for the future. " a la orden" we responded :D. so, from now on it is going to be me, marianne and camille. feels way better this way (and safer too as a matter of fact). the whole day was just spent wondering about the town (still in granada), visiting some churches, taking pictures and other must-things for tourists. we did finally go down to the lake nicaragua, just to state how contaminated it seemed to be and wonder how those little kids could swim in there. this little fellow of 7 years old assured us though that the water was warm and it was very deep there where he was swimming, and then he told us how he had god knows how many brothers and when i said that he must have been the baby of the family, he proudly said that he in fact was already an uncle because his sister had just had a baby. camille gave him a candy and he seemed to be quite happy with it.
at night it was time to go out and explore some night-life in granada. we ended up in this rather fancy club where everything was sponsored by flor de caña. that rum was just oozing from every possible spot. the music was in fact really good, and hence must have been the dj too, even though he kept cheering up the crowd with those constant "where is the best party in nicaragua?" and "now put your hands up those who feel proud to be nicaraguan" type of comments. boosting the national spirit, sponsored by the national licour. not bad. all in all granada has a positive atmosphere at night too and even though we were accidently banging on the wrong door at 3 am the neighbours did not even seem that grumpy. an extra point for granada!
sunday was just pretty much relaxing. we did go to the handy craft market of masaya though, it is some 1h away from granada and i did manage to spend immediately some 500 cordobas. it is justified though because i spent them on a book by gioconda belli that i wouldn`t be able to buy in finland. all in all the market was horribly pricy and we didn´t really spend that much time there. a hippie looking guy sold me a bracelet for 30 cordobas but it stayed on my hand for exactly 30min i presume, because this little boy on the bus was really insisting on having it as a present from me and well, in the end i just gave it to him. things come and go easily here. poor marianne didn´t find any good hammocks and was kind of regretting not buying that one that this elderly lady was selling to us for some 20 min on the street the other day. i could have even given her my hat if she just appeared, because obviously the moment we needed her, she was no where to be found. how typical is that?
anyway we are about to leave the hospitable town of granada with no hammocks, but with torches (reserved for the little cor island, where electricity is scarce) and overweight backpacks and start our long journey towards corn islands. next time i´ll post any updates will probably be in a week or so, because we are in fact planning to go all "survivors" on the island of little corn and hence internet is hardly included in this package. but so far so good, the spirit is up and bluefields, the old pirate town, is waiting for us.
at night it was time to go out and explore some night-life in granada. we ended up in this rather fancy club where everything was sponsored by flor de caña. that rum was just oozing from every possible spot. the music was in fact really good, and hence must have been the dj too, even though he kept cheering up the crowd with those constant "where is the best party in nicaragua?" and "now put your hands up those who feel proud to be nicaraguan" type of comments. boosting the national spirit, sponsored by the national licour. not bad. all in all granada has a positive atmosphere at night too and even though we were accidently banging on the wrong door at 3 am the neighbours did not even seem that grumpy. an extra point for granada!
sunday was just pretty much relaxing. we did go to the handy craft market of masaya though, it is some 1h away from granada and i did manage to spend immediately some 500 cordobas. it is justified though because i spent them on a book by gioconda belli that i wouldn`t be able to buy in finland. all in all the market was horribly pricy and we didn´t really spend that much time there. a hippie looking guy sold me a bracelet for 30 cordobas but it stayed on my hand for exactly 30min i presume, because this little boy on the bus was really insisting on having it as a present from me and well, in the end i just gave it to him. things come and go easily here. poor marianne didn´t find any good hammocks and was kind of regretting not buying that one that this elderly lady was selling to us for some 20 min on the street the other day. i could have even given her my hat if she just appeared, because obviously the moment we needed her, she was no where to be found. how typical is that?
anyway we are about to leave the hospitable town of granada with no hammocks, but with torches (reserved for the little cor island, where electricity is scarce) and overweight backpacks and start our long journey towards corn islands. next time i´ll post any updates will probably be in a week or so, because we are in fact planning to go all "survivors" on the island of little corn and hence internet is hardly included in this package. but so far so good, the spirit is up and bluefields, the old pirate town, is waiting for us.
Friday, August 1, 2008
1st of august
after a few days in leon it was high time to head to granada, another colonial jewel of nicaragua.
travelling with those backpacks is always a stressful business. this time there was just no room for our stuff in the minibus and so all the way from leon to managua our precious backpacks (the most precious obviously being the souvenirs from copan, honduras and not the dirty stinky clothes) had to travel on the roof of that minibus. quite stressful for us, not for them obviously. any time we sort of expected an 18kg backpack to fall of that roof and hence were ready to scream any given moment to the bus driver that it was necessary to stop and pick up our stuff. luckily we all made it to managua and were safely thrown into the next minibus to granada. once here it was time to relax though and discover the new city.
granada is just lovely. it is richer (and less politically extreme it seems) than leon and it also shows. the houses are in better shape, the streets are cleaner and in general the atmosphere is very friendly. granada is definitely the most attractive town we`ve seen so far and spending four days is not going to feel like a waste of time. marianne and i even made it to the near-by village of catarina today to admire the amazing view over the volcano crater filled with water, forming the lagoon of apoyo. behind it one could even see the edge of the magnificent lake cocibolca, a.k.a. lake nicaragua. spending 2h just gazing into the water didn´t feel like 2h at all because of the most breath-taking landscape. there are also two active volcanoes next to the lagoon, however no smoke was perceived this time :D
people here are very chatty, they love to talk and especially if they get a chance to express their political views to the strangers. unlike honduras where we mainly had discussions about "novios", well everyone´s love life that is and religion related questions with our hostfamilies and other people, here we tend to hear a lot about politics (especially leftist politics) and even about anarchism. a young man last night very eagerly explained to us how he is fascinated by ricardo´s theory and how anarchism is the only right solution for nicaragua. we were quite stunned but kept eating our grilled pork in a honey sauce without actively disputing with him over this matter. unfortunately discussing pro´s and con´s of anarchy is not very common at hanken, hence our knowledge on the subject was rather limited. the young man soon lost his interest in us and so we got to continue our evening at another place. good start.
travelling with those backpacks is always a stressful business. this time there was just no room for our stuff in the minibus and so all the way from leon to managua our precious backpacks (the most precious obviously being the souvenirs from copan, honduras and not the dirty stinky clothes) had to travel on the roof of that minibus. quite stressful for us, not for them obviously. any time we sort of expected an 18kg backpack to fall of that roof and hence were ready to scream any given moment to the bus driver that it was necessary to stop and pick up our stuff. luckily we all made it to managua and were safely thrown into the next minibus to granada. once here it was time to relax though and discover the new city.
granada is just lovely. it is richer (and less politically extreme it seems) than leon and it also shows. the houses are in better shape, the streets are cleaner and in general the atmosphere is very friendly. granada is definitely the most attractive town we`ve seen so far and spending four days is not going to feel like a waste of time. marianne and i even made it to the near-by village of catarina today to admire the amazing view over the volcano crater filled with water, forming the lagoon of apoyo. behind it one could even see the edge of the magnificent lake cocibolca, a.k.a. lake nicaragua. spending 2h just gazing into the water didn´t feel like 2h at all because of the most breath-taking landscape. there are also two active volcanoes next to the lagoon, however no smoke was perceived this time :D
people here are very chatty, they love to talk and especially if they get a chance to express their political views to the strangers. unlike honduras where we mainly had discussions about "novios", well everyone´s love life that is and religion related questions with our hostfamilies and other people, here we tend to hear a lot about politics (especially leftist politics) and even about anarchism. a young man last night very eagerly explained to us how he is fascinated by ricardo´s theory and how anarchism is the only right solution for nicaragua. we were quite stunned but kept eating our grilled pork in a honey sauce without actively disputing with him over this matter. unfortunately discussing pro´s and con´s of anarchy is not very common at hanken, hence our knowledge on the subject was rather limited. the young man soon lost his interest in us and so we got to continue our evening at another place. good start.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
30th of july
our second day in a glorious city of leon, which is full of lion statues in the center, started with a visit to a bakery for some fresh pasteries and juice and continued to the market square where we took a bus to the village by the sea. life here starts really early and one hears cars and horses too driving and passing by the window at some 5am already. by some 8am streets are full of people selling things, going here and there and performing their daily activities. compared with honduras the street scenery here is poorer, people don`t tend to have as "just-out-of-laundry" clothes, but it is also understandable due to the difficulties the country has suffered during the past 30 years. where honduras is full of american franchise chains like popeyes, wendy´s and such, nicaragua is not even contaminated with mcdonald´s i think. not that anyone really misses that junkfood anyways. so, a big plus in this sense.
on the bus to the village of las peñitas there was this elderly gentleman who looked at us in this curious way. marianne and i were slightly puzzled by it but then the gentleman suddenly stated in swedish that we were talking swedish and asked where we came from. he spoke the language very fluently and had lived in sweden for many years in the 80´s. apart from that he knew that tarja halonen had lived in nicaragua and in general showed a very positive attitude towards finland :) it felt a bit odd to be speaking swedish to someone in las peñitas where the local people could not really tell that marianne and i were not speaking english and hence were not from US.
the next stop we had to make in las peñitas, pretty much straight away when we got off the bus, was at the nearest restaurant in order to get some lunch. the owner was this really nice german woman and so we decided to test our luck and order a soup with seafood and fish in it. once that soup arrived we were speachless. it was a huge bowl of the most delicious coconut milk based soup with bananas, veggies and most importanly an entire fish and and entire crab among other things like shrimps etc. that was the soup of the soups (the price being 5 dollars). the only problem was that we were not given any tools in order to crack that soft ball sized crab and so marianne and i had to use all (well almost all) our energy and direct all that brain activity into cracking the crab with only a spoon and a stick for the teeth. we succeeded in the end, even though the crab was fighting back even dead floating in the soup. i got a long cut on the finger and was bleeding for quite a while but managed to get that delicious crabmeat. way better by the way than any fish fingers you´d get back at home!that was a training for our journey to the corn islands where we might encounter difficulties finding food and might have to adopt a robinson cruso life style.
by the time we were done with the crabs and such the weather looked perfect for the beach. i was going to take my first dip in the pacific ocean. once walking down that beach, which has nothing to do with the carribean beaches by the way i sort of figured out how impossible it was to swim in that so called pacific ocean. the sand on the beach was black because of the volcanic dust and the waves were ferrocious!marianne concluded that it was exactly like in ecuador and that is why she hates the pacific. it drags you back in the water even though you are almost 10m away from the actual wave. poor marianne was knocked over a few times and gained yet another big bruise on the leg. the rest of the time on the beach was dedicated to bargaining with these smart little boys that would try to sell you all sort of necklaces from shells and such things. one of those little fellows bugged marianne for quite a while because his bullet-proof argument was that since marianne comes from such a country as finland which is very expensive everything must be really cheap for her here and hence she should definitely buy all of his stuff. not bad at all for a 10 year old chap!finally loaded with some 4 necklaces we hopped on the next bus that took us back to leon. on the way there marianne started suspecting that that shrimp allergy might actually be real and that last time (in la ceiba) she had exactly the same feeling prior to vomiting all night. not good!well, it was not all night this time, but a good chunk of our time was spent wondering whether her stomack would get better or worse and partly because of that (the heavy rain did affect our decision too though) we had to miss a concert of a nicaraguan band that was performing that night and which has actually very good music. pity, but well maybe next time.
before going to bed though i went out to that one bookshop to get the latest novel of the nicaraguan writer gioconda belli and got involved in like an hour long discussion with an owner of the shop. he was a typical supertalkative nicaraguan fellow who would tell you aaaalll about any subject you would touch upon and so i got a free lecture on the geography, history and a current political and economic situation of nicaragua. main point being "we have to fight the evil empire" and to be honest he had a lot of common sense in what he was saying. che with his gaze into eternity, hanging on the wall of the shop must have agreed entirely with the owner.
on the bus to the village of las peñitas there was this elderly gentleman who looked at us in this curious way. marianne and i were slightly puzzled by it but then the gentleman suddenly stated in swedish that we were talking swedish and asked where we came from. he spoke the language very fluently and had lived in sweden for many years in the 80´s. apart from that he knew that tarja halonen had lived in nicaragua and in general showed a very positive attitude towards finland :) it felt a bit odd to be speaking swedish to someone in las peñitas where the local people could not really tell that marianne and i were not speaking english and hence were not from US.
the next stop we had to make in las peñitas, pretty much straight away when we got off the bus, was at the nearest restaurant in order to get some lunch. the owner was this really nice german woman and so we decided to test our luck and order a soup with seafood and fish in it. once that soup arrived we were speachless. it was a huge bowl of the most delicious coconut milk based soup with bananas, veggies and most importanly an entire fish and and entire crab among other things like shrimps etc. that was the soup of the soups (the price being 5 dollars). the only problem was that we were not given any tools in order to crack that soft ball sized crab and so marianne and i had to use all (well almost all) our energy and direct all that brain activity into cracking the crab with only a spoon and a stick for the teeth. we succeeded in the end, even though the crab was fighting back even dead floating in the soup. i got a long cut on the finger and was bleeding for quite a while but managed to get that delicious crabmeat. way better by the way than any fish fingers you´d get back at home!that was a training for our journey to the corn islands where we might encounter difficulties finding food and might have to adopt a robinson cruso life style.
by the time we were done with the crabs and such the weather looked perfect for the beach. i was going to take my first dip in the pacific ocean. once walking down that beach, which has nothing to do with the carribean beaches by the way i sort of figured out how impossible it was to swim in that so called pacific ocean. the sand on the beach was black because of the volcanic dust and the waves were ferrocious!marianne concluded that it was exactly like in ecuador and that is why she hates the pacific. it drags you back in the water even though you are almost 10m away from the actual wave. poor marianne was knocked over a few times and gained yet another big bruise on the leg. the rest of the time on the beach was dedicated to bargaining with these smart little boys that would try to sell you all sort of necklaces from shells and such things. one of those little fellows bugged marianne for quite a while because his bullet-proof argument was that since marianne comes from such a country as finland which is very expensive everything must be really cheap for her here and hence she should definitely buy all of his stuff. not bad at all for a 10 year old chap!finally loaded with some 4 necklaces we hopped on the next bus that took us back to leon. on the way there marianne started suspecting that that shrimp allergy might actually be real and that last time (in la ceiba) she had exactly the same feeling prior to vomiting all night. not good!well, it was not all night this time, but a good chunk of our time was spent wondering whether her stomack would get better or worse and partly because of that (the heavy rain did affect our decision too though) we had to miss a concert of a nicaraguan band that was performing that night and which has actually very good music. pity, but well maybe next time.
before going to bed though i went out to that one bookshop to get the latest novel of the nicaraguan writer gioconda belli and got involved in like an hour long discussion with an owner of the shop. he was a typical supertalkative nicaraguan fellow who would tell you aaaalll about any subject you would touch upon and so i got a free lecture on the geography, history and a current political and economic situation of nicaragua. main point being "we have to fight the evil empire" and to be honest he had a lot of common sense in what he was saying. che with his gaze into eternity, hanging on the wall of the shop must have agreed entirely with the owner.
29th of july
wild life keeps bugging me even here! in esteli a lizard hopped on my shoulder when i was standing by our room door in a hotel. this american guy that was there said that the lizard spotted a friend on my shoulder. on utila i got a temporary tattoo for 2 weeks and surprise surprise the tattoo is in a form of a lizard :D
the next day it was high time to head to leon. when getting a taxi in esteli marianne experienced one of those "lima caused taxi phoby attacks" when we got in a car where there was one extra person. it is rather justified but well luckily esteli and leon are not managua, so taking a cab here is relatively safe. managua is going to be more of a nervrecking experience, especially because we just heard a story of two foreign girls who got robbed in a taxi in managua that same day :S.
however, our journey towards leon continued. we hopped on that bus to the village of san isidro and were suppose to jump off somewhere there in order to switch to another bus that would go straight to leon. on the bus to san isidro there was a tv (incredible) and some 80´s best hits and well the sun was shining and it was very relaxing. it was relaxing until the moment we were told that we had just missed our stop. no way!so, what else was there to do but to jump off (or more like crawl off that bus with our heavy backpacks) and run for the next vehicle that would take us back to that crossroad in the middle of nowhere. this bus was a REAL chicken bus, not so much because of its yellow colour but more for the fact that the people on it had chickens and turkeys that were alive sitting on the floor, big buckets of onions and what not and we had to watch out in order not to step on someone´s precious bird. the chicken bus ride was not entirely over however once we got off that bus and sat by the road in the middle of the day waiting for the next bus. some 40 min later we hear the good old noise of the approaching vehicle and naturally take ourselves there with all our stuff. this new bus is even worse than the previous. it happened to be one of those "ordinarios" which take you on an almost free trip through every single little village on the way. the views from the window were nice (especially the volcano reaching all the way to where the clouds are), but the road that we were driving along was honestly life threatening. i have never ever had a bus ride of some 3h that would be as bumpy and overall crazy as this one. marianne would not take her eyes off our backpacks tucked away above the seats and that despite the fact that it was insanely difficult even keeping yourself in an upright position or even seated on that bench because with every bump you literally fell off your seat. that was some real rural nicaragua experience there for 3h. once finally in leon all we wanted was to find our hotel and crash there.
the first impression of leon was slightly intimidating. there are sandinista red and black flags on many houses and almost every pole and tree is painted in red and black. the whole city in fact is oozing revolutionary atmosphere still and it shows everywhere. a striking difference when compared to honduras. when it comes to leon´s colonial style architecture - it´s wonderful. the city square is beautiful and spacious. it looks a lot like spain (obviously) but with central american touch. there are quite a few tourists wondering about and it is lively and safe in the center at night. big advantage in our opinion!leon is a nice place to chill for a few days and we were going to explore it the best we could.
the next day it was high time to head to leon. when getting a taxi in esteli marianne experienced one of those "lima caused taxi phoby attacks" when we got in a car where there was one extra person. it is rather justified but well luckily esteli and leon are not managua, so taking a cab here is relatively safe. managua is going to be more of a nervrecking experience, especially because we just heard a story of two foreign girls who got robbed in a taxi in managua that same day :S.
however, our journey towards leon continued. we hopped on that bus to the village of san isidro and were suppose to jump off somewhere there in order to switch to another bus that would go straight to leon. on the bus to san isidro there was a tv (incredible) and some 80´s best hits and well the sun was shining and it was very relaxing. it was relaxing until the moment we were told that we had just missed our stop. no way!so, what else was there to do but to jump off (or more like crawl off that bus with our heavy backpacks) and run for the next vehicle that would take us back to that crossroad in the middle of nowhere. this bus was a REAL chicken bus, not so much because of its yellow colour but more for the fact that the people on it had chickens and turkeys that were alive sitting on the floor, big buckets of onions and what not and we had to watch out in order not to step on someone´s precious bird. the chicken bus ride was not entirely over however once we got off that bus and sat by the road in the middle of the day waiting for the next bus. some 40 min later we hear the good old noise of the approaching vehicle and naturally take ourselves there with all our stuff. this new bus is even worse than the previous. it happened to be one of those "ordinarios" which take you on an almost free trip through every single little village on the way. the views from the window were nice (especially the volcano reaching all the way to where the clouds are), but the road that we were driving along was honestly life threatening. i have never ever had a bus ride of some 3h that would be as bumpy and overall crazy as this one. marianne would not take her eyes off our backpacks tucked away above the seats and that despite the fact that it was insanely difficult even keeping yourself in an upright position or even seated on that bench because with every bump you literally fell off your seat. that was some real rural nicaragua experience there for 3h. once finally in leon all we wanted was to find our hotel and crash there.
the first impression of leon was slightly intimidating. there are sandinista red and black flags on many houses and almost every pole and tree is painted in red and black. the whole city in fact is oozing revolutionary atmosphere still and it shows everywhere. a striking difference when compared to honduras. when it comes to leon´s colonial style architecture - it´s wonderful. the city square is beautiful and spacious. it looks a lot like spain (obviously) but with central american touch. there are quite a few tourists wondering about and it is lively and safe in the center at night. big advantage in our opinion!leon is a nice place to chill for a few days and we were going to explore it the best we could.
Monday, July 28, 2008
28th of july
the last day on utila was sheer madness. it was the climax of the carnival, which in our case implied no place where to eat!everything was full, there were fireworks non-stop, so one could barely hear what the neighbour was saying and every restaurant was packed. eventually we found a spot at the place which seemed good and some....1,5h later we even got our dinner. that was definitely the slowest service EVER but hey we got food. the waiter told the people that came after us that of course they could sit down but there was no guarantee they would even get anything to eat. impressive customer service. the carnival takes place every year and hence every year this particular night is insanely busy, but nevertheless no one bothers to get ready for it and e.g. hire some more stuff for the night. the carribean relaxed style :) don´t trouble the trouble before the trouble troubles you.
next morning on sunday at 6am it was time to abandon finally that island. marianne was saying how she was depressed there and i was quite glad to change the scenery too. after all that diving (not all that relevant for me but still) all of us felt quite sick. poor marianne suspects she has an ear infection and her ears are constantly blocked, i got sore throat and sincerely hope it will not progress and result in a full-scale flu. the harbour was full of last-minute-ticket-purchase still drunk or hung-over backpackers but nevertheless all that crowd made it to the ferry and left for la ceiba. from there people´s trips continued to different places. marianne and i grabbed the first bus to where else but san pedro sula (6th time there so far) in order to get a connection to tegucigalpa. that day was long. we were finally in tegucigalpa at some 6pm and it was dark and the place where the bus terminal is situated is dodgy according to lonely planet. not the best set up for two girls with backpacks. so, we stuffed ourselves in a taxi and gave the address of the hotel. 3 min later we were at the hotel. it turned out that the hotel was right besides the bus terminal!:D how typical is this situation in a new city?anyway all we did in tegucigalpa was go out to grab some food for a very good price (after utila everything seems reasonable) and hit the sack. the trip was exhausting but at least it was spiced up by wonderful views. first the carribean tropical climate with its palm trees and ladies selling mango with chile and salt and then gradually turning into hills and forests where the most predominant tree is pinetree. outside tegucigalpa it looked very much like home with rocks and pinetrees and a much cooler air. really nice!well, apart from the views outside the window we did also get entertained by "the devil wears prada" on tv which was hilarious :)
our hotel in tegucigalpa was this matchbox with no windows but with hot water!that did not really matter since all we did there was sleep and once again it was time to wake up like zombies at 5am in order to head to the bus terminal (a different one this time). along with some other backpackers we hopped on the first bus to las manos, which is right on the border with nicaragua and upon our arrival there, there was no other plan but to cross that border. now the question was to get that passport out of my secret pocket inside the pants. the only available bathroom turned out to be this primitive almost bio-toilet (latin america at its best) where all sort of parasites were almost visible with a naked eye. a few minutes later with a passport in one hand and US dollars in the other we approached the officials. 6 dollars in order to leave honduras and 7 dollars for the entry to nicaragua and not even a stamp in the passport!rip off bad time!one could have just crossed that border with the chickens a bit off the main road and no one would have ever found out that we were in honduras before entering nicaragua. however, once in nicaragua it was the whole "where r u going, where r u going, ocotal, esteli, managua quickly quickly, we´re leaving nooooow!" business and before we had time to figure anything out we were already in ocotal where our bags (and we too) were grabbed by those agile ticketsellers as if potatosacks to be thrown right into the next bus to esteli. no time to go to the bathroom or get anything to eat. it is all "we´re leaving riiight noooow" bus schedules here. in this sense there is no difference between honduras and nicaragua. same yellow school buses and loud music, but it´s got its charm too, one has to admit. so now we´re in esteli, a small hopefully safe provincial town in northern nicaragua. our plan for tonight is to visit a bar with sandinista symbols and themes in order to get some real flor de caña. tomorrow it will be the next chunk of our trip: journey to leon.
next morning on sunday at 6am it was time to abandon finally that island. marianne was saying how she was depressed there and i was quite glad to change the scenery too. after all that diving (not all that relevant for me but still) all of us felt quite sick. poor marianne suspects she has an ear infection and her ears are constantly blocked, i got sore throat and sincerely hope it will not progress and result in a full-scale flu. the harbour was full of last-minute-ticket-purchase still drunk or hung-over backpackers but nevertheless all that crowd made it to the ferry and left for la ceiba. from there people´s trips continued to different places. marianne and i grabbed the first bus to where else but san pedro sula (6th time there so far) in order to get a connection to tegucigalpa. that day was long. we were finally in tegucigalpa at some 6pm and it was dark and the place where the bus terminal is situated is dodgy according to lonely planet. not the best set up for two girls with backpacks. so, we stuffed ourselves in a taxi and gave the address of the hotel. 3 min later we were at the hotel. it turned out that the hotel was right besides the bus terminal!:D how typical is this situation in a new city?anyway all we did in tegucigalpa was go out to grab some food for a very good price (after utila everything seems reasonable) and hit the sack. the trip was exhausting but at least it was spiced up by wonderful views. first the carribean tropical climate with its palm trees and ladies selling mango with chile and salt and then gradually turning into hills and forests where the most predominant tree is pinetree. outside tegucigalpa it looked very much like home with rocks and pinetrees and a much cooler air. really nice!well, apart from the views outside the window we did also get entertained by "the devil wears prada" on tv which was hilarious :)
our hotel in tegucigalpa was this matchbox with no windows but with hot water!that did not really matter since all we did there was sleep and once again it was time to wake up like zombies at 5am in order to head to the bus terminal (a different one this time). along with some other backpackers we hopped on the first bus to las manos, which is right on the border with nicaragua and upon our arrival there, there was no other plan but to cross that border. now the question was to get that passport out of my secret pocket inside the pants. the only available bathroom turned out to be this primitive almost bio-toilet (latin america at its best) where all sort of parasites were almost visible with a naked eye. a few minutes later with a passport in one hand and US dollars in the other we approached the officials. 6 dollars in order to leave honduras and 7 dollars for the entry to nicaragua and not even a stamp in the passport!rip off bad time!one could have just crossed that border with the chickens a bit off the main road and no one would have ever found out that we were in honduras before entering nicaragua. however, once in nicaragua it was the whole "where r u going, where r u going, ocotal, esteli, managua quickly quickly, we´re leaving nooooow!" business and before we had time to figure anything out we were already in ocotal where our bags (and we too) were grabbed by those agile ticketsellers as if potatosacks to be thrown right into the next bus to esteli. no time to go to the bathroom or get anything to eat. it is all "we´re leaving riiight noooow" bus schedules here. in this sense there is no difference between honduras and nicaragua. same yellow school buses and loud music, but it´s got its charm too, one has to admit. so now we´re in esteli, a small hopefully safe provincial town in northern nicaragua. our plan for tonight is to visit a bar with sandinista symbols and themes in order to get some real flor de caña. tomorrow it will be the next chunk of our trip: journey to leon.
Friday, July 25, 2008
25th of july
my previous comment on the wild life on utila difinitely should be expanded. as if getting eaten alive by the sandflies is not enough (no bugspray can kill those beasts and they seem to find me any time of the day any place) i was literally attacked by that monstrous cockroach that invited itself to my room some 3 days ago. while i was peacefully chilling on my bed watching one of those amazing cabel channels offered by our "luxurious" hotel utila i heard an odd noise on the other side of the room and some two seconds later saw with a corner of my eye a giant bug sitting....on my cheek. if the whole hotel didn't hear my reaction, it certainly must have heard what followed after that. when it dawned on me that this creature was an 8cm long fat and ugly cockroach i had no where else to go but marianne's room in order to invite a cockroach smashing expert to take care of my problem. hunting down that beast was not all that easy and calm, i had to flee the room a few times but eventually the enemy was beaten and marianne wrapped it up in a sheet and carried outside. needless to say, sleeping in that room was somewhat difficult that night. i wonder if i should complain to the owner of the hotel...hmm...she'd just probably tell me how glad she'd be if i packed my things and left for good. so, we're still staying at that same hotel and i don't think any kind of disinfection will take place in my room.
after an eventfull night at hotel utila it was time to get up at 6am in order to catch that boat to the reef for my proper deep dive. if i still had maybe some hope that i'd enjoy the whole activity at 6am, it was definitely gone by 8am. i started feeling dizzy already on the boat. when it was time to go down, equalizing the pressure was somewhat difficult and i was feeling dizzy because of the current. taking that motion sickness pill just did not help at all. the reef looked cool but i felt completely detached from it, as if i were observing it on a screen, like on tv. when finally on the surface the current was crazy, choppy weather conditions, said the diving instructors. that all contributed to the fact that i felt absolutely horribly seasick. there was no way i was going to do that second dive and so during the following 40 min i was being rocked on that boat and offered a free breakfast to the fish. now comes the ironic part. down at the reef i didn't manage to see that many fishies, something i really hoped i'd see, so i was completely disappointed. once on the boat, vomiting, however, an enormous amount of the most beautiful small fishes appeared out of the blue and well, it was not necessary to do all that diving after all :D so, i can gladly say i've done scuba diving, completely disliked it and now will stay on the firm ground. after all that suffering on the boat i naturally was completely exhausted and missed the cave tour organized by our spanish school. that is of course lame, but well, next time then. now it is time to go and explore the gastronomic side of utila once again, hoping to get some good and not too expensive food. (last night was a complete failure in this sense. had a small plate of mediocre shrimps and paid for it some obscene price according to the local price list)
we have one day more or less left on utila and on sunday marianne and i will start our long journey towards nicaragua with a stop-over in tegucigalpa. i have a hunch it will be demanding.
after an eventfull night at hotel utila it was time to get up at 6am in order to catch that boat to the reef for my proper deep dive. if i still had maybe some hope that i'd enjoy the whole activity at 6am, it was definitely gone by 8am. i started feeling dizzy already on the boat. when it was time to go down, equalizing the pressure was somewhat difficult and i was feeling dizzy because of the current. taking that motion sickness pill just did not help at all. the reef looked cool but i felt completely detached from it, as if i were observing it on a screen, like on tv. when finally on the surface the current was crazy, choppy weather conditions, said the diving instructors. that all contributed to the fact that i felt absolutely horribly seasick. there was no way i was going to do that second dive and so during the following 40 min i was being rocked on that boat and offered a free breakfast to the fish. now comes the ironic part. down at the reef i didn't manage to see that many fishies, something i really hoped i'd see, so i was completely disappointed. once on the boat, vomiting, however, an enormous amount of the most beautiful small fishes appeared out of the blue and well, it was not necessary to do all that diving after all :D so, i can gladly say i've done scuba diving, completely disliked it and now will stay on the firm ground. after all that suffering on the boat i naturally was completely exhausted and missed the cave tour organized by our spanish school. that is of course lame, but well, next time then. now it is time to go and explore the gastronomic side of utila once again, hoping to get some good and not too expensive food. (last night was a complete failure in this sense. had a small plate of mediocre shrimps and paid for it some obscene price according to the local price list)
we have one day more or less left on utila and on sunday marianne and i will start our long journey towards nicaragua with a stop-over in tegucigalpa. i have a hunch it will be demanding.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
24th of july
utila is full of wild life. as tourists here we wittness it every day. two days ago a huge cockroach (or maybe it even was a mouse) sneaked in my room when i opened the door and since then i sleep and worry what this creature might want to do sooner or later. on the streets we constantly spot some really megasized crabs that move in this funky manner -sideways and the one we saw yesterday was seeking shelter in some guy´s bag that was half open on the ground. i would be terrified if i suddenly found a football sized crab in my bag instead of my water bottle or keys.
there are also iguanas that move swiftly and dodge effectively all sort of vehicles that people ride down the main street here. there are hardly any cars on the island so the population mainly uses scooters, fourwheeled sort of motorbikes that look very funny and then golf cars. especially the golf cars look very out of place here :D the iguanas are apparently on the verge of extinction because they have long been the favourite dish of the locals and so in order to prevent them from disappearing forever there is an iguana research station here on the island. we went to visit that place the other day and were thrilled to see those beautiful creatures, especially when it was lunchtime for them and some fresh small crabs were delivered to them in cages and some real life action took place.
apart from the wild life in the town there is however another part of it that most people find out about through diving. i have not managed to observe that part yet, and i doubt i will do so. our diving course started on monday and i must admit up until now it´s been a pain for me. there is a vast amount of theory that one has to learn and pass the exam (i don´t think i´ve done this much physics since the first year of high school, seriously) such as pressure, how gases behave under water and most important why one should never ever hold breath while scuba diving: the lungs will explode because of the growing gas volume in them when ascending. awful things. however these are not bad, doing the scuba exercises underwater is way worse. it has all been putting your gear on, checking it, then in the water taking the mask off and putting it back on (that is way below the surface), training to be neutrally buoyant using just the lungs as a regulator and such. i have been the one least excited by scuba diving out of us all so far, and ironically enough i have been the one without any cold symptoms (until today) unlike poor marianne that got her nose running and ears blocked and scott that almost had a feverish state on the first day. nevertheless today i skipped the whole business and i don´t frankly speaking care if i won´t get that PADI open water certificate. ok, spotting that big barracuda underwater and not readily cooked on a plate was kind of awesome, but i still don´t enjoy having tonnes of water above me and feeling claustraphobic. no more scuba diving for me after tomorrow. tomorrow is going to be my last suffering on the depth of some 10 to 18 metres and that is why i´d better see that sea turtle or something else worth telling about :D.
other than the fish, there is not much else to see on utila since it is mostly not habitated and i can´t say i´ll miss it tremendously after this week. marianne and scott are all superexcited about their dives and proudly showed me the dive log and calculated that by saturday they will have 6 full dives done and the last two are going to be free fun dives. well, for me the fun dives are going to consist of diving from the beach to the water no deeper than my height and back. i just like it more to be on the firm ground and i just simply start freezing under water after some 20 min which obviously my friends do not experience and kind of crack up when i say it, since the water is some 29 degrees. apart from the streneous diving though, things have gone pretty smoothly. obviously upon arrival i had some mild problems with the stomack as we started eating out every day and the island is a typical touristic place but no big problems. spanish classes have also been very relaxed. today for instance we spent the second part of the lesson on the beach with marianne and our teachers reading some jokes about gringos and indians. life here is kind of in a slow motion and it is not all that bad at all.
there are also iguanas that move swiftly and dodge effectively all sort of vehicles that people ride down the main street here. there are hardly any cars on the island so the population mainly uses scooters, fourwheeled sort of motorbikes that look very funny and then golf cars. especially the golf cars look very out of place here :D the iguanas are apparently on the verge of extinction because they have long been the favourite dish of the locals and so in order to prevent them from disappearing forever there is an iguana research station here on the island. we went to visit that place the other day and were thrilled to see those beautiful creatures, especially when it was lunchtime for them and some fresh small crabs were delivered to them in cages and some real life action took place.
apart from the wild life in the town there is however another part of it that most people find out about through diving. i have not managed to observe that part yet, and i doubt i will do so. our diving course started on monday and i must admit up until now it´s been a pain for me. there is a vast amount of theory that one has to learn and pass the exam (i don´t think i´ve done this much physics since the first year of high school, seriously) such as pressure, how gases behave under water and most important why one should never ever hold breath while scuba diving: the lungs will explode because of the growing gas volume in them when ascending. awful things. however these are not bad, doing the scuba exercises underwater is way worse. it has all been putting your gear on, checking it, then in the water taking the mask off and putting it back on (that is way below the surface), training to be neutrally buoyant using just the lungs as a regulator and such. i have been the one least excited by scuba diving out of us all so far, and ironically enough i have been the one without any cold symptoms (until today) unlike poor marianne that got her nose running and ears blocked and scott that almost had a feverish state on the first day. nevertheless today i skipped the whole business and i don´t frankly speaking care if i won´t get that PADI open water certificate. ok, spotting that big barracuda underwater and not readily cooked on a plate was kind of awesome, but i still don´t enjoy having tonnes of water above me and feeling claustraphobic. no more scuba diving for me after tomorrow. tomorrow is going to be my last suffering on the depth of some 10 to 18 metres and that is why i´d better see that sea turtle or something else worth telling about :D.
other than the fish, there is not much else to see on utila since it is mostly not habitated and i can´t say i´ll miss it tremendously after this week. marianne and scott are all superexcited about their dives and proudly showed me the dive log and calculated that by saturday they will have 6 full dives done and the last two are going to be free fun dives. well, for me the fun dives are going to consist of diving from the beach to the water no deeper than my height and back. i just like it more to be on the firm ground and i just simply start freezing under water after some 20 min which obviously my friends do not experience and kind of crack up when i say it, since the water is some 29 degrees. apart from the streneous diving though, things have gone pretty smoothly. obviously upon arrival i had some mild problems with the stomack as we started eating out every day and the island is a typical touristic place but no big problems. spanish classes have also been very relaxed. today for instance we spent the second part of the lesson on the beach with marianne and our teachers reading some jokes about gringos and indians. life here is kind of in a slow motion and it is not all that bad at all.
Monday, July 21, 2008
20th of july
saturday was not over once we got to utila. in la ceiba we were told that a person named diana would pick us up. naturally she was not there so we started walking towards the school. this same person however spotted us somewhere close by the school building and told us that the island hosts a carnival this week and all the places are reserved, so no hotel with a fan, private room and a tv as we were promissed (and for which we paid 140 bucks). instead she told us how she managed to organize us a room to be shared and that this room would be available until friday only instead of sunday and what not until the moment my nausea and irritation took over and we three politely wondered how come our reservations that were paid btw already in april were cancelled. the room the lady from the school offered was horrible, with a bathroom that looked like it had not been renovated since the mighty days of the first settlers on the island. a carribean size cucaracha could have shown up any second there.
so, after some sour faces and pressure from our side diana in some inexplicable way (and suspicious behaviour) showed up with 3 keys for separate rooms with fans, tvs and private bathrooms in that exact hotel that was stated in our reservation. miracle?no. more like someone trying to rip us off and accomodate us in a shack that is worth 10 times less than what we paid. so, once at the hotel it cleared what the deal was. every room had 3 beds in it, obviously meant for some 4-5 people per room instead of one and the owner looked like she wanted us dead right on that spot. marianne said she was going to make those voodoo dolls that same night. a concept of customer service is non-existent at this hotel, moreover open hostility is a more accurate definition. local population that speaks this absolutely incomprehensive english here on utila is very unfriendly towards tourists and tourism is what utila lives off. paradoxic.
the beaches and the water however are great here. blue sky, white coral sand and the sea with its 29 degrees celcius. no wonder after this exhausting trip on saturday all we did on sunday was lay about and enjoy the surroundings. we did organize our scuba diving timetable as well, which means a lot of theory and a lot of fun hopefully this week. the scuba shop looked amazing and the scuba diving instructors are just oozing this positive attitude and energy. utila is a scuba diving island so leaving it without doing open water scuba diving is almost a crime. so far so good!
so, after some sour faces and pressure from our side diana in some inexplicable way (and suspicious behaviour) showed up with 3 keys for separate rooms with fans, tvs and private bathrooms in that exact hotel that was stated in our reservation. miracle?no. more like someone trying to rip us off and accomodate us in a shack that is worth 10 times less than what we paid. so, once at the hotel it cleared what the deal was. every room had 3 beds in it, obviously meant for some 4-5 people per room instead of one and the owner looked like she wanted us dead right on that spot. marianne said she was going to make those voodoo dolls that same night. a concept of customer service is non-existent at this hotel, moreover open hostility is a more accurate definition. local population that speaks this absolutely incomprehensive english here on utila is very unfriendly towards tourists and tourism is what utila lives off. paradoxic.
the beaches and the water however are great here. blue sky, white coral sand and the sea with its 29 degrees celcius. no wonder after this exhausting trip on saturday all we did on sunday was lay about and enjoy the surroundings. we did organize our scuba diving timetable as well, which means a lot of theory and a lot of fun hopefully this week. the scuba shop looked amazing and the scuba diving instructors are just oozing this positive attitude and energy. utila is a scuba diving island so leaving it without doing open water scuba diving is almost a crime. so far so good!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
19th of july
friday was the last day in copan and we just had to visit the birds' park because leaving copan without seeing all those parrots and tucans and having them sit on the shoulder was not possible. so, in order to get to the park it was necessary to take a mototaxi, which is this funny combination of a motobike with a roof attached to it. since the roads are all but even in copan it is actually a miracle that these things do not flip over and manage to drive up to 4 passengers with an average speed of some 40 km per hour though. however, even with that speed it seemed like we were going to crash into something because our driver was definately showing us his best driving skills in rainy weather and in his mind he was probably driving at least formula 1 rally. one of the stickers on his front window said "it's better to lose a minute of a life than a life in a minute" in spanish but he absolutely did not follow that smart advice.
all in all however we made it to the birds' park and wondered about there for some 2h watching different birds and eventually getting to hold them and pose for the pictures. i had three parrots sitting on me out of which one was quite determined to tear my hair out with its claws. the pictures turned out lovely though and well, not all of the birds were that ferocious. tucans were really sweet and mainly just wondered about with their huge yellow beaks and curious eyes. friday evening was dedicated to the last-minute shopping for souvenirs and as a result of this last-minute shopping my backpack now seems to weight at least 18 kg instead of its initial weight of some 14 when it left helsinki. and i have been throwing stuff away!it's not only me though, everyone seems to experience the same effect when it comes to their luggage. feeling like a mule is not nice but there is no other option available either.
early start on saturday. bus leaving at 5am from copan!obviously the mototaxi that was supposed to pick us up at our house and take us to the bus station never showed up so marianne and i had to bravely march down the road with all of our stuff virtually in the middle of the night because the sun was not up yet and the clock ticking all that time. we did make it to the bus though, exhausted and wet (it was dripping all the time) without falling even once on that slippery path and got ourselves on the bus. the horror story for me starts after that particular moment. since at 5am no proper breakfast was available marianne and i had a chocolate bar instead. that was a bad idea. i was throwing up for 3h on the bus during its whole journey to san pedro sula because of the motion sickness. the road was uneven and went through the mountains which exacerbated the motion sickness. i did not take a motion sickness pill because i had not eated anything and severely regretted it afterwards. upon arriving in san pedro sula i was feeling mildly put sick. however, there was the next bus waiting for us already to head off to la ceiba. and what is worse after that we still had to get a boat to the island of utila, and the waves at the carribean sea are insane. somehow i still managed the whole trip with switching modes of transportation and plastic bags and making it to utila. once on the boat it was quite clear where we were heading. the boat was packed full with brittish, american and french young tourists all being dressed like wanna-be surfers with tonnes of seashell bracellets and necklaces on them and obviously red like the chili sause so popular in central america. the boat ride was crazy with the boat performing some 45 degree drops and everyone getting a salty water shower in their faces. our luggage was safe though, all piled up in one room isolated from the water. everyone surely was glad about it until the moment it was time to get off that boat on utila. so, a few hundred people get off the boat simultaneously and flock about the pier watching how one guy starts throwing one bag at at time on the ground. naturally the owners of the first bags are somewhere where they can not see the bags and hence the bag pile just keeps growing. that was happening until the captain of the boat actually showed up and proclaimed in his perfectly impossible-to-understand-english " hey, man, what's wrong with ya?cum and get that luggage!" and so the passengers standing next to the pile would start co-operating, lifting people's bags in the air and shouting: "whose baaaaag?!" and in this particularly ineffective way even we managed to obtain our packpacks and start walking down the main street of utila, which naturally was packed with tanned surfer like scuba diver instructors and such all advertising their schools and offering you and only you "the best deal on the island".
all in all however we made it to the birds' park and wondered about there for some 2h watching different birds and eventually getting to hold them and pose for the pictures. i had three parrots sitting on me out of which one was quite determined to tear my hair out with its claws. the pictures turned out lovely though and well, not all of the birds were that ferocious. tucans were really sweet and mainly just wondered about with their huge yellow beaks and curious eyes. friday evening was dedicated to the last-minute shopping for souvenirs and as a result of this last-minute shopping my backpack now seems to weight at least 18 kg instead of its initial weight of some 14 when it left helsinki. and i have been throwing stuff away!it's not only me though, everyone seems to experience the same effect when it comes to their luggage. feeling like a mule is not nice but there is no other option available either.
early start on saturday. bus leaving at 5am from copan!obviously the mototaxi that was supposed to pick us up at our house and take us to the bus station never showed up so marianne and i had to bravely march down the road with all of our stuff virtually in the middle of the night because the sun was not up yet and the clock ticking all that time. we did make it to the bus though, exhausted and wet (it was dripping all the time) without falling even once on that slippery path and got ourselves on the bus. the horror story for me starts after that particular moment. since at 5am no proper breakfast was available marianne and i had a chocolate bar instead. that was a bad idea. i was throwing up for 3h on the bus during its whole journey to san pedro sula because of the motion sickness. the road was uneven and went through the mountains which exacerbated the motion sickness. i did not take a motion sickness pill because i had not eated anything and severely regretted it afterwards. upon arriving in san pedro sula i was feeling mildly put sick. however, there was the next bus waiting for us already to head off to la ceiba. and what is worse after that we still had to get a boat to the island of utila, and the waves at the carribean sea are insane. somehow i still managed the whole trip with switching modes of transportation and plastic bags and making it to utila. once on the boat it was quite clear where we were heading. the boat was packed full with brittish, american and french young tourists all being dressed like wanna-be surfers with tonnes of seashell bracellets and necklaces on them and obviously red like the chili sause so popular in central america. the boat ride was crazy with the boat performing some 45 degree drops and everyone getting a salty water shower in their faces. our luggage was safe though, all piled up in one room isolated from the water. everyone surely was glad about it until the moment it was time to get off that boat on utila. so, a few hundred people get off the boat simultaneously and flock about the pier watching how one guy starts throwing one bag at at time on the ground. naturally the owners of the first bags are somewhere where they can not see the bags and hence the bag pile just keeps growing. that was happening until the captain of the boat actually showed up and proclaimed in his perfectly impossible-to-understand-english " hey, man, what's wrong with ya?cum and get that luggage!" and so the passengers standing next to the pile would start co-operating, lifting people's bags in the air and shouting: "whose baaaaag?!" and in this particularly ineffective way even we managed to obtain our packpacks and start walking down the main street of utila, which naturally was packed with tanned surfer like scuba diver instructors and such all advertising their schools and offering you and only you "the best deal on the island".
Friday, July 18, 2008
17th of july
after seeing at our school that the students get a 30% discount on the spa treatments at this one particular place it was quite obvious for marianne and me that we should pick something interesting and head off to the spa in the mountains. our final choice lay in something called temascal which is appearently a ritual that mayas performed in order to purify the body and the soul. it sounded fascinating enough and the price of 25 dollars is also manageable.
after some 30 min of an extremely bumpy road in the mountains we finally came to the spa itself. it was situated in the midst of a coffee plantation, perfectly fitting in its natural environment. the quality of the buildings and a pool was though what one could easily have at a summer house in finland and a vapor sauna did not impress us that much, but we came there after all in order to experience temascal. so temascal was what could be called an igglo in the middle of an open-air space and the idea is to enter it, sit down and enjoy the aroma therapy. the floor is covered in flower petals and plant leaves and in the middle of the floor there are hot stones where a person is constantly sprinkling some water with even more scents and the whole place is slowly being filled with fumes and vapor of different plants and flowers. the idea is to relax and mediate there for an hour in order to release the stress and leave the place in a good mood and relaxed. in our case this relaxation certainly happened, as we barely could stay awake during the classes. marianne has been complaining every day how she is so tired here in copan, well after temascal she was practically sleep walking all day :) the procedure was though totally worth the money and it was a very calming experience. extra points for the beauty and tranquility of the place.
after some 30 min of an extremely bumpy road in the mountains we finally came to the spa itself. it was situated in the midst of a coffee plantation, perfectly fitting in its natural environment. the quality of the buildings and a pool was though what one could easily have at a summer house in finland and a vapor sauna did not impress us that much, but we came there after all in order to experience temascal. so temascal was what could be called an igglo in the middle of an open-air space and the idea is to enter it, sit down and enjoy the aroma therapy. the floor is covered in flower petals and plant leaves and in the middle of the floor there are hot stones where a person is constantly sprinkling some water with even more scents and the whole place is slowly being filled with fumes and vapor of different plants and flowers. the idea is to relax and mediate there for an hour in order to release the stress and leave the place in a good mood and relaxed. in our case this relaxation certainly happened, as we barely could stay awake during the classes. marianne has been complaining every day how she is so tired here in copan, well after temascal she was practically sleep walking all day :) the procedure was though totally worth the money and it was a very calming experience. extra points for the beauty and tranquility of the place.
16th of july
internet here in copan has been a disaster. it works sporadically and so keeping a blog updated is a challenge. nevertheless we've been doing a lot of things here every day so each day is worth to mention.
wednsday morning was reserved for a horse riding trip to the indigenous village nearby copan. taking in account that my last horse ride took place quite a few years ago i was a bit worried how that would go. marianne did do a good job at describing in details how scary her riding in equador had been so i was already imagining how i'd perform a perfect arc in the air and land on my back. however when it was time to actually get on that animal, it turned out to be much easier than what i though and i profoundly enjoyed riding my horse despite the fact that it seemed to be awfully hungry all the time and wouldn't skip a moment to stop by every eucalyptus bush and start munching on it. i even learned how to make it go faster and managed all the way to remain seated at the appropriate place. the views that we were observing were just amazing once again. riding by the side of a river with a sun shining above and the corn plantations and coffee plantations on higher altitudes around us was very pleasant indeed. the village where we arrived was a typical chorti indian village and one does figure out immediately just how poor the indian communities in the countries of latin america are after seeing this example. it is indeed perplexing how the money never seems to make it to these places. the village has one tv and it is situated in a small hut in the middle of the settlement and there is hardly any electricity. so, in terms of such factors as pure water and electricity this place is definately in need of economic donations.
the kids were however adorable and were selling us all sort of typical things that they make in these communities. we all just had to buy something there in order to support the women of this community who gain their living by selling the traditional handycraft to the tourists. the trip to this particular community was not just a pleasant horse ride but also an eye-opening experience in many other senses. apart from that we all of course enjoyed tremendously the riding and are definately determined to do it again as soon as the next opportunity presents itself. and i'm not afraid of horses anymore :)
wednsday morning was reserved for a horse riding trip to the indigenous village nearby copan. taking in account that my last horse ride took place quite a few years ago i was a bit worried how that would go. marianne did do a good job at describing in details how scary her riding in equador had been so i was already imagining how i'd perform a perfect arc in the air and land on my back. however when it was time to actually get on that animal, it turned out to be much easier than what i though and i profoundly enjoyed riding my horse despite the fact that it seemed to be awfully hungry all the time and wouldn't skip a moment to stop by every eucalyptus bush and start munching on it. i even learned how to make it go faster and managed all the way to remain seated at the appropriate place. the views that we were observing were just amazing once again. riding by the side of a river with a sun shining above and the corn plantations and coffee plantations on higher altitudes around us was very pleasant indeed. the village where we arrived was a typical chorti indian village and one does figure out immediately just how poor the indian communities in the countries of latin america are after seeing this example. it is indeed perplexing how the money never seems to make it to these places. the village has one tv and it is situated in a small hut in the middle of the settlement and there is hardly any electricity. so, in terms of such factors as pure water and electricity this place is definately in need of economic donations.
the kids were however adorable and were selling us all sort of typical things that they make in these communities. we all just had to buy something there in order to support the women of this community who gain their living by selling the traditional handycraft to the tourists. the trip to this particular community was not just a pleasant horse ride but also an eye-opening experience in many other senses. apart from that we all of course enjoyed tremendously the riding and are definately determined to do it again as soon as the next opportunity presents itself. and i'm not afraid of horses anymore :)
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
15th of july
our time in la ceiba was finally over on sunday and so we got on that bus that belongs to the most expensive bus company in honduras, called hedman alas, to start our journey towards copan. getting on that bus was btw almost as difficult as getting on a plane, with all the bags being checked, id being checked and even a picture being taken!a bit exaggerated in my opinion. after all if this is all the security measures, why wouldn´t they take the prints of your teeth or maybe a dna sample as well?and another negative point for hedman alas: they wouldn´t stop to let those ladies with mangos with chile and salt hop on the bus and sell them to the hungry passengers. the bus company is too fancy for that apperently. buu.
but anyway some time in the afternoon we were finally in copan. everyone has been telling us how great that town is and so our expectations were high, and to be honest they were completely met by copan. it is a lovely little town that could be situated somewhere in rural spain for example with its paved streets, pretty houses and lots of shops with traditional craft. after san pedro and la ceiba, this is such a releif. copan is small, safe and has a very nice atmosphere. all of us are completely in love with it!it´s a pity we didn´t stay here 2 weeks instead of hanging about in la ceiba. there are cows, chickens and horses everywhere and everyone seems to know each other. their central square is cozy and it´s not dangerous to sit about there in the evening. there are all sort of lots that sell lovely things like grilled corn with salt and lime. delicious!
our first day which was monday was a bit unlucky in terms of the weather, because it rained every hour or so and walking down the street was challenging with all those slippery pavements. we spent that day getting to know our family, where marianne and i are staying, the school, teachers and the wonderful little shops with all sort of souvenirs that are very tempting. too bad my backpack has a limit when it comes to filling it. our family is adorable. they have a new big house where everything works (well almost everything) and there is hot water!the members of the family socialize with us and we always have company during the luch or dinner. during the first day we were just plainly astonished by such a change from what we had in la ceiba. marianne was positively surprised when it came to the size of the portions of food (a considerable increase in comparison with la ceiba) whereas i like the fact that people at this house show some interest in us and where we come from. they compare a lot of what we say to US but that is understandable since for honduras it seems that the main point of reference is US and unlike some other countries in this region they mainly have a positive attitude towards americans. not that we care that much, since we´re just glad when people have at least somewhat of an idea where finland and that part of the world in general is situated.
when it comes to the spanish school here, one can´t do anything else but admit that it is much better than the one in la ceiba!their building is new and spacy, has a lovely garden and every student has his/her own room for studying. all in all, copan is fab!
the weather decided to have mercy on us, or well depends on the point of view of course and tuesday was graced with perfect sunshine. that sunshine was of course causing "slow brain activity mode" in us to a certain extent, especially in those not adapted to the sun too well :) hint hint but still the morning was dedicated to copan ruinas- the great mayan ruins situated just outside the town. our guide ramon gave us an extensive lecture about mayan culture and traditions, about the history of maya and what not. marianne was suffering from some kind of total distraction and attention deficit state and so all the details about the 16 copan´s rulers were summarized by her in the name of one of them, the most influential one, "the 18th rabbit". the rabbit was a talented politician, however he was decapitated later, so maybe after all he was not that talented. copan is only one of the main spots of mayan culture, others being tikal in guatemala for example, and after visiting copan we agreed that tikal should definately be on the list of must-see-places. not this time, but at some point in the future then.
evenings in copan are nice and cool and so sitting outside is a pleasure. it was definately the smartest move so far to come to copan. i highly recommend it to anyone travelling to honduras!
but anyway some time in the afternoon we were finally in copan. everyone has been telling us how great that town is and so our expectations were high, and to be honest they were completely met by copan. it is a lovely little town that could be situated somewhere in rural spain for example with its paved streets, pretty houses and lots of shops with traditional craft. after san pedro and la ceiba, this is such a releif. copan is small, safe and has a very nice atmosphere. all of us are completely in love with it!it´s a pity we didn´t stay here 2 weeks instead of hanging about in la ceiba. there are cows, chickens and horses everywhere and everyone seems to know each other. their central square is cozy and it´s not dangerous to sit about there in the evening. there are all sort of lots that sell lovely things like grilled corn with salt and lime. delicious!
our first day which was monday was a bit unlucky in terms of the weather, because it rained every hour or so and walking down the street was challenging with all those slippery pavements. we spent that day getting to know our family, where marianne and i are staying, the school, teachers and the wonderful little shops with all sort of souvenirs that are very tempting. too bad my backpack has a limit when it comes to filling it. our family is adorable. they have a new big house where everything works (well almost everything) and there is hot water!the members of the family socialize with us and we always have company during the luch or dinner. during the first day we were just plainly astonished by such a change from what we had in la ceiba. marianne was positively surprised when it came to the size of the portions of food (a considerable increase in comparison with la ceiba) whereas i like the fact that people at this house show some interest in us and where we come from. they compare a lot of what we say to US but that is understandable since for honduras it seems that the main point of reference is US and unlike some other countries in this region they mainly have a positive attitude towards americans. not that we care that much, since we´re just glad when people have at least somewhat of an idea where finland and that part of the world in general is situated.
when it comes to the spanish school here, one can´t do anything else but admit that it is much better than the one in la ceiba!their building is new and spacy, has a lovely garden and every student has his/her own room for studying. all in all, copan is fab!
the weather decided to have mercy on us, or well depends on the point of view of course and tuesday was graced with perfect sunshine. that sunshine was of course causing "slow brain activity mode" in us to a certain extent, especially in those not adapted to the sun too well :) hint hint but still the morning was dedicated to copan ruinas- the great mayan ruins situated just outside the town. our guide ramon gave us an extensive lecture about mayan culture and traditions, about the history of maya and what not. marianne was suffering from some kind of total distraction and attention deficit state and so all the details about the 16 copan´s rulers were summarized by her in the name of one of them, the most influential one, "the 18th rabbit". the rabbit was a talented politician, however he was decapitated later, so maybe after all he was not that talented. copan is only one of the main spots of mayan culture, others being tikal in guatemala for example, and after visiting copan we agreed that tikal should definately be on the list of must-see-places. not this time, but at some point in the future then.
evenings in copan are nice and cool and so sitting outside is a pleasure. it was definately the smartest move so far to come to copan. i highly recommend it to anyone travelling to honduras!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
12th of july
after a couple of more languid days in la ceiba where main activities were trying out various dishes at various places (includes asking for a juice without sardines instead of a watermelon due to the similarity in pronunciation of those 2 words in spanish language) and deciding which rum after all is the best one for cuba libre it felt really great finally to get ready to go out in the wilderness again. what happened right before out trip to the wilderness though was that our school burned down. or that is what we were told on thursday night. news and especially bad ones travel fast here and everyone would add their own little detail to spice up the story so in the end we thought that our spanish school was turned into carbon. everything and everyone was upside down and classes were moved elsewhere. the reality however was that the school itself was not destroyed by the fire, but the apartment above it was permanantly gone. and what is it that caused the fire then?well heavy showers and lightnings and the poor insulation of electic wires in the building lead first to a black out and then to the actual fire. good no one was hurt though!black outs however are quite common here with the whole neighbourhood or an entire mall suddenly turning dark in the middle of the day or worse - evening.
back to the trip though. marianne, scott and i were high in spirit and thought rafting was something one absolutely must do while here. pico bonito, a national park right outside la ceiba, is a perfect spot for that kind of activities. our transport was this old grey truck-like bus that is more suitable for transporting boats than people; nevertheless it took us right to the jungle river lodge, a place situated by the river cangrejal. the whole area is amazingly beautiful and the river+rocks+mountain covered with rainforests combination is just breathtaking. it´s not rainy season now so the river is quite tame, at least when one observes it from a distance. in december the water level rises many meters and floods basically everything around it. so, after a quick round around the place the owner suggested we did rafting that same day, friday, instead of saturday, because the weather was great for it (said he). it was not an ideal moment for us though, since we had been out the night before and still were in need of recovery. but the weather would not wait for us and so neglecting the slight dizziness it was time to get a lesson of rafting. putting on those lifejackets and helmets is obviously necessary and doesn´t indicate anything about the river or the activity itself, so it was when our guide and captain told us to hold hands and say our prayers to god that we got a bit worried. apart from that it turned out that "great weather" ment heavy rain and winds! the first excercise consisted in grabbing a paddle with left hand, swimming against the current to the other side and then letting yourself float in the river and let it take you to the next "stop point". it sounds quite easy in reality it is demanding!that was all but a calm start!everyone got sucked in the depths at some point, got water in the mouth, nose, ears and i at least felt like i was literally drowning. we did not drown though. not yet. that was just the beginning. after this little test it was time to get in the boat and listen to all sort of instructions, like : forward, backwards, on the floor etc. for the next 2h we were paddling like mad, yelling 1 and 2, hitting each other with those paddles occasionally (i got a nice blow from scott right in the face, which resulted in my upper lip getting swollen and bleeding for some time in the water) and going under the water and then popping back up on the surface with the water streams running down our faces, hair and clothes. the experience was AMAZING though. our expectations of an easy ride in a boat were mildly said erroneous but what we got was still absolutely impossible to describe with words. i suppose we did great job because no one fell out of the boat in bad places (even though scott did lose his balance a few times, somewhat destabilizing the balance of the boat too) and everyone had sore muscles this morning, including a few mild injuries. falling out of the boat was supposingly also an excercise but when scott made a staitment that "...they can´t make us fall out of the boat, we´re paying for this!" no falling happened :D. all in all our rafting experience was fantastically positive and at times when we were not 100% absorbed by the white water and the frantic turns the boat was making, we had a chance to spot a few tucans on the tree nearby and actually see them and their gorgeous big yellow beaks from a very close distance. river cangrejal made a great impression on the whole team (i hope so at least).
the rest of the day was spent in a very relaxing manner, sitting about in hamacas, having conversations with the two adorable guacamayas (the big parrots) and watching the scenery change at night when the sky finally cleared up and the moon was white and bright. later on that night our guide jairo told us that two people have actually died on that river. one doing cayak and the other person doing rafting. so, now i see why every time before hitting that stream one has to say the prayers. it is possible that one doesn´t pop up on the surface again even though the river looks calm. jungle river lodge was a great place and i wish we didn´t have to leave it that soon. the whole environment there is somehow thrilling. even on saturday, today, once back in la ceiba i´m still under the impression from yesterday. this is definately one of the best if not the best place in honduras i´ve visited so far.
back to the trip though. marianne, scott and i were high in spirit and thought rafting was something one absolutely must do while here. pico bonito, a national park right outside la ceiba, is a perfect spot for that kind of activities. our transport was this old grey truck-like bus that is more suitable for transporting boats than people; nevertheless it took us right to the jungle river lodge, a place situated by the river cangrejal. the whole area is amazingly beautiful and the river+rocks+mountain covered with rainforests combination is just breathtaking. it´s not rainy season now so the river is quite tame, at least when one observes it from a distance. in december the water level rises many meters and floods basically everything around it. so, after a quick round around the place the owner suggested we did rafting that same day, friday, instead of saturday, because the weather was great for it (said he). it was not an ideal moment for us though, since we had been out the night before and still were in need of recovery. but the weather would not wait for us and so neglecting the slight dizziness it was time to get a lesson of rafting. putting on those lifejackets and helmets is obviously necessary and doesn´t indicate anything about the river or the activity itself, so it was when our guide and captain told us to hold hands and say our prayers to god that we got a bit worried. apart from that it turned out that "great weather" ment heavy rain and winds! the first excercise consisted in grabbing a paddle with left hand, swimming against the current to the other side and then letting yourself float in the river and let it take you to the next "stop point". it sounds quite easy in reality it is demanding!that was all but a calm start!everyone got sucked in the depths at some point, got water in the mouth, nose, ears and i at least felt like i was literally drowning. we did not drown though. not yet. that was just the beginning. after this little test it was time to get in the boat and listen to all sort of instructions, like : forward, backwards, on the floor etc. for the next 2h we were paddling like mad, yelling 1 and 2, hitting each other with those paddles occasionally (i got a nice blow from scott right in the face, which resulted in my upper lip getting swollen and bleeding for some time in the water) and going under the water and then popping back up on the surface with the water streams running down our faces, hair and clothes. the experience was AMAZING though. our expectations of an easy ride in a boat were mildly said erroneous but what we got was still absolutely impossible to describe with words. i suppose we did great job because no one fell out of the boat in bad places (even though scott did lose his balance a few times, somewhat destabilizing the balance of the boat too) and everyone had sore muscles this morning, including a few mild injuries. falling out of the boat was supposingly also an excercise but when scott made a staitment that "...they can´t make us fall out of the boat, we´re paying for this!" no falling happened :D. all in all our rafting experience was fantastically positive and at times when we were not 100% absorbed by the white water and the frantic turns the boat was making, we had a chance to spot a few tucans on the tree nearby and actually see them and their gorgeous big yellow beaks from a very close distance. river cangrejal made a great impression on the whole team (i hope so at least).
the rest of the day was spent in a very relaxing manner, sitting about in hamacas, having conversations with the two adorable guacamayas (the big parrots) and watching the scenery change at night when the sky finally cleared up and the moon was white and bright. later on that night our guide jairo told us that two people have actually died on that river. one doing cayak and the other person doing rafting. so, now i see why every time before hitting that stream one has to say the prayers. it is possible that one doesn´t pop up on the surface again even though the river looks calm. jungle river lodge was a great place and i wish we didn´t have to leave it that soon. the whole environment there is somehow thrilling. even on saturday, today, once back in la ceiba i´m still under the impression from yesterday. this is definately one of the best if not the best place in honduras i´ve visited so far.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
9th of july
spending another week in la ceiba starts feeling like it is a bit too much. there is not much to do frankly speaking and so we try to get out of the city every day after classes. monday was spent though in this typical gringo style hotel resort bar watching the beach and the sea where you can not (it is not recommended in la ceiba) swim because it is contaminated. feels a bit sad, since the nature is so beautiful but the trace of human existence is evident in every single square meter. it is right in your face with all those plastic bottles and bags, old shoes and what not. on tuesday we went back to sambo creek, the garrifuna village just to be completely perplexed as to what had happened to that nice beach. it looked as if a garbage truck had an accident on the beach. as we were told later that happens after the rain/storm. all that junk appears on the beach and in the water. it actually becomes dangerous to swim in the sea since you really run the risk of being hit by a glassbottle in a head. i didn't take my chances, whereas marianne felt all brave and dived in that junksea. i really hope it gets cleaned up at some point, but unfortunately i'm not all that sure, because people here seem to treat the surrounding nature as "no man's land" and hence the garbage is dumped pretty much anywhere. a curious observation is that i seem to see quite a bit of hidden unemployment here, e.g. the other day there were two guys standing in the supermarket and peeling onions. what for? onions are preserved better unpeeled and sure enough everyone is capable of pealing there own onions, right?the same applies to the person standing next to the casheer and putting all your grocery shoppings in a bag for you. in my opinion their time would be spent in a way more productive manner if they were actually collecting that junk at the beach. it is all very sad and further contributes to the fact why marianne and i haven't been spending all of our free time at the beach and still are not the colour of a roasted bean.
la ceiba is an ok town, however something tells me that i won't miss it that much once we're out in the rainforest again or on our way to the other side of the country in order to continue our language course in the village of copan by the ancient maya ruins.
la ceiba is an ok town, however something tells me that i won't miss it that much once we're out in the rainforest again or on our way to the other side of the country in order to continue our language course in the village of copan by the ancient maya ruins.
Monday, July 7, 2008
7th of july
friday night was the night when marianne, scott, dan and i were suppose to get a cooking class from teresa, who is the lady of the house where marianne lives. she is this really talkative, extravert woman in her late 40`s and marianne is actually complaining that spending some 16h a day having conversations with her about all the possible topics is quite tiring. she is also quite religious and since "do you have a boyfriend?" is a common question here this results in her saying every now and then in this really assuring manner to marianne "don't worry, you just have to ask god to give you a boyfriend". sounds rather crazy in our opinion. and so back to the cooking class. we made some tortillas and a typical salad with tomatos, onions, vinigar etc and chicken. the food turned out delicious and teresa definately could set up her own restaurant, she was managing the stuff very well! the dinner was also a sort of a farewell dinner for dan, since he was leaving the next day for tegucigalpa in order to volunteer at this orphanage for 13 months. wow!that is impressive. he promissed to start a blog of his own about this experience.
saturday was the day of the excursion to the islands that are about 1h boat ride away from the coast. i took a motion sickness pill but since i had never taken one before i didn't know what effect to expect. i felt sick already on the bus on our way to the boat. when i saw that tiny boat mean for 10 people hit by those waves i felt even more sick. the beginning of the boat trip was marked by the appearance of the dolphins. i didn't see though any because i was trying to fix my eyes on something stable in that sea. my stomack was definately disagreeing with the fact that waves are fun. however some 20min later the pill kicked in and i stopped feeling all dizzy. it was time for scott to feel all dizzy now. i have to admit that the sight was breathtaking. the small islands that look like they are taken straight from a broschure about the paradise island resorts. we were told that "survivors" were filmed there at some point. perfect harmony. light blue sea, clear water, white coral sand and palm trees, and a random hut here or there. that is where it was time to have lunch. sitting in a shade, eating fried fish just pulled out from the water, one almost felt like a robinson cruso or at least a survivor from the reality show mentioned above. on our way back the storm was getting alarmingly close. it was insanely windy and the boat just kept jumping on those waves and we got the water all over us every time the boat would "land" again. wearing contact lenses and getting all that salty water in the eyes exacerbated the effect of being in the middle of almost a sea storm. we got to the shore just on time, the heavens just broke and all that water fell down in a few minutes on everyone and everything. the tropical shower it was once again. all tired but luckily not that wet we were taken back to our houses and spent a chilled out evening in the movies.
on sunday morning we all squized in teresa's car and accompanied her to her church. it was an evangelic church and it definately was an experience to participate in an evangelic mass. there was a lot of singing and clapping hands. quite entertaining in fact. nothing in common with catholic masses. when we felt like the spiritual part of the day was complete it was time to move....where else but to the beach and have a drink. that was the programme for that day until once again the rain almost caused a flood in the city and we had to rush to get a cab home. with dan gone now, marianne got a new flatmate carly from england and another girl whose name i don't know yet.
friday was by the way the evaluation day for the teachers, classes and families. just like me scott happens to be staying in a fancy house but with a family who is not really interacting with him. on sunday he told us that all of a sudden that morning people from his house appeared and were all freandly asking how the trip was and where he actually was from and such. he also got a proper lunch :D i guess the feedback actually makes it to the final destination.
saturday was the day of the excursion to the islands that are about 1h boat ride away from the coast. i took a motion sickness pill but since i had never taken one before i didn't know what effect to expect. i felt sick already on the bus on our way to the boat. when i saw that tiny boat mean for 10 people hit by those waves i felt even more sick. the beginning of the boat trip was marked by the appearance of the dolphins. i didn't see though any because i was trying to fix my eyes on something stable in that sea. my stomack was definately disagreeing with the fact that waves are fun. however some 20min later the pill kicked in and i stopped feeling all dizzy. it was time for scott to feel all dizzy now. i have to admit that the sight was breathtaking. the small islands that look like they are taken straight from a broschure about the paradise island resorts. we were told that "survivors" were filmed there at some point. perfect harmony. light blue sea, clear water, white coral sand and palm trees, and a random hut here or there. that is where it was time to have lunch. sitting in a shade, eating fried fish just pulled out from the water, one almost felt like a robinson cruso or at least a survivor from the reality show mentioned above. on our way back the storm was getting alarmingly close. it was insanely windy and the boat just kept jumping on those waves and we got the water all over us every time the boat would "land" again. wearing contact lenses and getting all that salty water in the eyes exacerbated the effect of being in the middle of almost a sea storm. we got to the shore just on time, the heavens just broke and all that water fell down in a few minutes on everyone and everything. the tropical shower it was once again. all tired but luckily not that wet we were taken back to our houses and spent a chilled out evening in the movies.
on sunday morning we all squized in teresa's car and accompanied her to her church. it was an evangelic church and it definately was an experience to participate in an evangelic mass. there was a lot of singing and clapping hands. quite entertaining in fact. nothing in common with catholic masses. when we felt like the spiritual part of the day was complete it was time to move....where else but to the beach and have a drink. that was the programme for that day until once again the rain almost caused a flood in the city and we had to rush to get a cab home. with dan gone now, marianne got a new flatmate carly from england and another girl whose name i don't know yet.
friday was by the way the evaluation day for the teachers, classes and families. just like me scott happens to be staying in a fancy house but with a family who is not really interacting with him. on sunday he told us that all of a sudden that morning people from his house appeared and were all freandly asking how the trip was and where he actually was from and such. he also got a proper lunch :D i guess the feedback actually makes it to the final destination.
Friday, July 4, 2008
4th of july
wednsday was not really exciting in terms of the trips but it certainly was interesting to observe the locals´behaviour at the mall. since honduras seems to be flooded with the american chains, obviously malls are being built all around the place just to resemble almost 100% the typical US malls. marianne and i thought of getting engaged in some shopping, maybe even for clothes. bad idea. to me it seemed like the clothes i´ve seen here so far are either tasteless and expensive (european prices) or even more tasteless and of low quality but cheap. hmm, i think i won´t yet throw away all of these old summer clothes i have with me, because all of a sudden i´ve developed a very special affection for them in the face of no substitute possibilities. i almost feel sorry that i only have one pair of jeans with me, since everyone here wears jeans, despite of the 30 degrees heat though!so the mall time was dedicated to a supermarket and an amazing "fresh fruit juices" cafe. i must admit i have never heard of a good deal of those fruit names that are constantly in use here. so my guiding principle when choosing a combination of fruit is trial and error.
remembering back from the time spent in spain that thursday is a big night for going out, it was definately a siesta time in the afternoon after classes. the classes themselves didn´t take place at school even, but the whole group left for this little ranch by the seaside and the atmosphere was very informal. marianne was boiling hot all the time and preferred to stay in the shade while i did do some other activities in the sun besides swimming in the afternoon. however, back to the going out at night part. it was going to start well. however poor marianne ignored the previous experience she has had with shrimps and had a few for dinner. this resulted in her having to visit a bathroom as soon as we arrived in the first bar. the shrimps were really resistent and so marianne had to visit the same bathroom a few times in a row after which feeling really ill she took a taxi home. bad luck!the rest of the bunch stayed though and we continued our way to the disco popping by in some bars on the way there, tasting the typical garrifuna drink among other things (stong licor that tastes like a mixture of jagermeister and campari) and finally storming the dance floor which quite naturally had reggaeton. luckily that changed soon to be replaced by salsa, bachata etc and suddenly it was already 2am (classes still start at 7.30am) and it looked like heading home was the best option. i woke up tired this morning but at least i slept in own bed. what happened to our friend scott was way more exotic. due to the complicated lock system in every house here it might not be that easy to open the door at 3am and scott empirically proved it. he was locked out and had to sleep on the street. at least it is safe in our neighbourhood (called colonia el sauce). he told us this morning that he slept ouside his house on the street virtually until the house woke up. how horrible (but extremely entertaining too) it was to listen to that. poor scott the streetkid is ok though and next time will probably check how the lock system works way in advance.
Today is friday and it´s boiling hot in la ceiba again. everyone is going to recover from yesterday and get prepared for the next trip tomorrow to the islands nearby. should be fun.
remembering back from the time spent in spain that thursday is a big night for going out, it was definately a siesta time in the afternoon after classes. the classes themselves didn´t take place at school even, but the whole group left for this little ranch by the seaside and the atmosphere was very informal. marianne was boiling hot all the time and preferred to stay in the shade while i did do some other activities in the sun besides swimming in the afternoon. however, back to the going out at night part. it was going to start well. however poor marianne ignored the previous experience she has had with shrimps and had a few for dinner. this resulted in her having to visit a bathroom as soon as we arrived in the first bar. the shrimps were really resistent and so marianne had to visit the same bathroom a few times in a row after which feeling really ill she took a taxi home. bad luck!the rest of the bunch stayed though and we continued our way to the disco popping by in some bars on the way there, tasting the typical garrifuna drink among other things (stong licor that tastes like a mixture of jagermeister and campari) and finally storming the dance floor which quite naturally had reggaeton. luckily that changed soon to be replaced by salsa, bachata etc and suddenly it was already 2am (classes still start at 7.30am) and it looked like heading home was the best option. i woke up tired this morning but at least i slept in own bed. what happened to our friend scott was way more exotic. due to the complicated lock system in every house here it might not be that easy to open the door at 3am and scott empirically proved it. he was locked out and had to sleep on the street. at least it is safe in our neighbourhood (called colonia el sauce). he told us this morning that he slept ouside his house on the street virtually until the house woke up. how horrible (but extremely entertaining too) it was to listen to that. poor scott the streetkid is ok though and next time will probably check how the lock system works way in advance.
Today is friday and it´s boiling hot in la ceiba again. everyone is going to recover from yesterday and get prepared for the next trip tomorrow to the islands nearby. should be fun.
1st of july
la ceiba wakes up insanely early, or well it looks like the whole honduras wakes up early because your hours of activity are limited to those during the daytime and that means that the classes at the central america spanish school start at 7.30, which is painfully early. the first day which was monday was marked by hot sunny weather and new faces which mostly are american or canadian. classes are all individual and my maestra (teacher) leslie only has to put up with me :) must admit that right from the beginning most of the time is spent discussing every-day life in honduras and what not which is exactly what i need. so this was a positive start. not such a positive start was the fact that my fifth day out of 2 moths to come in honduras had to also include a visit to a doctor. sun+vichy sun screen combination resultated in a strong allergic reaction and so marianne and i had to explore the local medical centre. to my greatest surprise things went really smoothly there and within an hour i was out with a prescription for some antihistamins and such things (my nordea visa electron didn´t let me down btw) and a recommendation to stay out of the sun. sounds difficult right in a country which is so close to equator?well not really, i just had to adopt the local style and move about the city with a big dark umbrella for a few days. the ironical bit is that i came all the way from finland to get some sun in central america and as soon as its first rays hit me i got an allergic reaction. well, anyway the allergy is gone now and the umbrella mainly serves as a weapon against tropical showers.
tuesday was a good day to explore the nearby villages (back to the chickens and the pigs in the backyards) and so marianne, her flatmate dan from US and this guy scott from canada and i decided to catch a ride to a garrifuna village some 30km away from la ceiba. the village is known for its population which is mostly descendents of african and further ethnic mixtures that have been occuring in the region since the first black slaves were brought here. they tecnically speak spanish but no one understands them anyways because of the particular dialect they have. the village is called sambo creek and what makes it great is the fact that there are clean beaches there unlike in la ceiba where the beach is contaminated due to some reason which i don´t know. the amount of garbage on the streets is though precisely the same as everywhere else. plastic bottles being the most common view, i guess outnumbering the coconut trees nowadays. right, so tuesday was then spent in a hamac in the shade drinking soda and swimming in the carribean sea. naturally we couldn´t leave sambo creek without tasting its typical coconut bread. had to engage in a lot of conversations with the locals in order to locate finally this house where fresh coconut bred loaves were being taken out of the oven. an extremely chatty local chap told us aaaalll about the village and his life and his daughter and i can´t even remember what else while taking us to his aunt´s place where the actual loaves were baked. the day seemed perfect until the moment we got on this public bus that no longer scares me though. first it was just cloudy then it started dripping and the moment we got off that bus it was a full-scale hurricane mitch going on. or that´s how we perceived it after getting soaking wet in no more than 20sec and seeing some palmtrees falling down because of the wind. the minihurricane was though over in some 20 min and one would think that that´s it, the problem is solved. not really. la ceiba is built on swamps so what happens every day when it rains between 4 and 6pm is that the water accumulates on the streets, gets mixed with the dirt and the grass (pavements are virtually non-existent here) and this mud is what one´s feet and shoes have to put up with on the way home. some places get so flooded the normal taxi can´t drive there and the only car that can drive is this jeep 4x4 or a pick-up track, which most of the population drive here. quite crazy one must admit. the only good thing that results from this is that the air is always wonderfully cool and clean after the rain.
tuesday was a good day to explore the nearby villages (back to the chickens and the pigs in the backyards) and so marianne, her flatmate dan from US and this guy scott from canada and i decided to catch a ride to a garrifuna village some 30km away from la ceiba. the village is known for its population which is mostly descendents of african and further ethnic mixtures that have been occuring in the region since the first black slaves were brought here. they tecnically speak spanish but no one understands them anyways because of the particular dialect they have. the village is called sambo creek and what makes it great is the fact that there are clean beaches there unlike in la ceiba where the beach is contaminated due to some reason which i don´t know. the amount of garbage on the streets is though precisely the same as everywhere else. plastic bottles being the most common view, i guess outnumbering the coconut trees nowadays. right, so tuesday was then spent in a hamac in the shade drinking soda and swimming in the carribean sea. naturally we couldn´t leave sambo creek without tasting its typical coconut bread. had to engage in a lot of conversations with the locals in order to locate finally this house where fresh coconut bred loaves were being taken out of the oven. an extremely chatty local chap told us aaaalll about the village and his life and his daughter and i can´t even remember what else while taking us to his aunt´s place where the actual loaves were baked. the day seemed perfect until the moment we got on this public bus that no longer scares me though. first it was just cloudy then it started dripping and the moment we got off that bus it was a full-scale hurricane mitch going on. or that´s how we perceived it after getting soaking wet in no more than 20sec and seeing some palmtrees falling down because of the wind. the minihurricane was though over in some 20 min and one would think that that´s it, the problem is solved. not really. la ceiba is built on swamps so what happens every day when it rains between 4 and 6pm is that the water accumulates on the streets, gets mixed with the dirt and the grass (pavements are virtually non-existent here) and this mud is what one´s feet and shoes have to put up with on the way home. some places get so flooded the normal taxi can´t drive there and the only car that can drive is this jeep 4x4 or a pick-up track, which most of the population drive here. quite crazy one must admit. the only good thing that results from this is that the air is always wonderfully cool and clean after the rain.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
29th of june
on friday we got to the lake yojoa. were able to get off that bus at the right spot since a concept of "bus stops" hardly exists, everyone gets picked up by the bus where ever they are walking by the side of the road. the bus stops, the brakes squeek and the ticket selling boy shouts something distantly related to the real name of the destination of the bus. the people get on the bus and it gets more and more crowded. the capacity of the bus seems to have no limits. but getting back to our final destination which was a little village of los naranjos. we got off the bus and could smell that countryside air. chickens running everywhere confirmed that feeling. locals would stare at us. it felt quite uncomfortable at first but then you get used to it, and well since people here like small talk and we're quite fluent in spanish, we´d go along and chat with everyone who´d talk to us. i don´t think i´ve ever engaged in this amount of random talking to random people before. so friday was spent in the village, we were staying at this gringo owned place called D&D and it was a very rudimentally equipped room, but enough for a night or two. in order to spare some space the bathroom was literally inside the room with only a curtain separating it from the beds. that was not so nice, but well a new experience anyway. marianne detected a spider and freaked out but then i gracefully let it out of its misery by applying the force of gravity and a fat guide book called "honduras tips". it was a successful co-operation. the spider was dead. then we also spotted a lizard inside the room and a coutless amount of insects, primarilly mosquitos.
saturday was marked by insanely early wake-up, at 5 am to get in time to our excursion on lake yojoa. our guide was this elderly englishman malcolm who was very friendly and seemed to know awfully lot about the birds and other animals and the plants too in fact. that was the first birdwatching tour i´ve had since highschool when the whole class was freezing somewhere on the outskirts of helsinki supposingly spotting birds, in real life freezing to death and wishing to return back to the bus asap. after the lake yojoa tour it was time for marianne and i to grab that bus again and head to the waterfalls. wow, the waterfalls were amazing, we took some great photos and dipped ourselves in the rather chilly water of the waterfalls. it was refreshing and entertaining. the sun came out for an hour or so and we took advantage of it to the full extent. the evening was calm and the dinner was delicious once again. i think we went to bed at some 9pm already in order to wake up early to hit the road again on sunday morning. it was time to head to la ceiba.
the bus journey to la ceiba was quite long and somewhat stressful because our backpacks were put away in the luggage department of the bus and marianne was constantly keeping an eye on the place where they were put away from her seat by the window. frantic peering is necessary-stuff gets stolen here. the otherwise monotonous ride was spiced up by some mango with salt and chili and vinigar which we purchased from the ladies that come to the bus when it stops by the gas station. that was an interesting experience as well. sweet mango with salt and chili. i´ll definately have to eat this again. and so by 3.30 pm we were in la ceiba. for some reason we expected a proper big terminal like in san pedro sula but instead got a tiny bus stop where we jumped off and immediately were surrounded by young lads offering taxi, dvds, whatever, even marriage :D had to decline all of the above and head to the other bus terminal where the head of our language school would pick us up. bus terminal in la ceiba was all except safe. one didn´t feel very comfortable, and so when rafael showed up with his wife and a child in the back of the car we were glad to leave the terminal and head to our families. in the e-mail i recieved from the school back home it said i would live in a family of 4 people, including a young girl of 5 years old. so last day in helsinki i rush off to stockmann to get a muumi stuffed animal for the babe of the family. in la ceiba it turns out however that the family i´ll live in is completely different. it´s an upper middle class family and there is an 8-months old baby but i think muumi pappa will be more appreciated by someone a little bit older and maybe from a slightly poorer background. muumi pappa is sitting in my bag still and most likely will travel to ruinas de copan in a week to find its new owner there. otherwise the family has a big house with a part where i live belonging to the parents (currently on vacation in USA)of the young man who is the head of the family and who lives with his wife, daughter and a servant on the other side of the house. the lady cookes amazing food and it is served to me 3 times a day. good deal, even though so far there has not beed that much interaction between me and the family. marianne has exactly the opposite situation with a poorer family but extremely sociable house wife to whom we just refer as "mama" of that house who wants to know everything and also tells you everything. sunday night was calm and hot and humid just like la ceiba itself. on monday the classes would begin.
saturday was marked by insanely early wake-up, at 5 am to get in time to our excursion on lake yojoa. our guide was this elderly englishman malcolm who was very friendly and seemed to know awfully lot about the birds and other animals and the plants too in fact. that was the first birdwatching tour i´ve had since highschool when the whole class was freezing somewhere on the outskirts of helsinki supposingly spotting birds, in real life freezing to death and wishing to return back to the bus asap. after the lake yojoa tour it was time for marianne and i to grab that bus again and head to the waterfalls. wow, the waterfalls were amazing, we took some great photos and dipped ourselves in the rather chilly water of the waterfalls. it was refreshing and entertaining. the sun came out for an hour or so and we took advantage of it to the full extent. the evening was calm and the dinner was delicious once again. i think we went to bed at some 9pm already in order to wake up early to hit the road again on sunday morning. it was time to head to la ceiba.
the bus journey to la ceiba was quite long and somewhat stressful because our backpacks were put away in the luggage department of the bus and marianne was constantly keeping an eye on the place where they were put away from her seat by the window. frantic peering is necessary-stuff gets stolen here. the otherwise monotonous ride was spiced up by some mango with salt and chili and vinigar which we purchased from the ladies that come to the bus when it stops by the gas station. that was an interesting experience as well. sweet mango with salt and chili. i´ll definately have to eat this again. and so by 3.30 pm we were in la ceiba. for some reason we expected a proper big terminal like in san pedro sula but instead got a tiny bus stop where we jumped off and immediately were surrounded by young lads offering taxi, dvds, whatever, even marriage :D had to decline all of the above and head to the other bus terminal where the head of our language school would pick us up. bus terminal in la ceiba was all except safe. one didn´t feel very comfortable, and so when rafael showed up with his wife and a child in the back of the car we were glad to leave the terminal and head to our families. in the e-mail i recieved from the school back home it said i would live in a family of 4 people, including a young girl of 5 years old. so last day in helsinki i rush off to stockmann to get a muumi stuffed animal for the babe of the family. in la ceiba it turns out however that the family i´ll live in is completely different. it´s an upper middle class family and there is an 8-months old baby but i think muumi pappa will be more appreciated by someone a little bit older and maybe from a slightly poorer background. muumi pappa is sitting in my bag still and most likely will travel to ruinas de copan in a week to find its new owner there. otherwise the family has a big house with a part where i live belonging to the parents (currently on vacation in USA)of the young man who is the head of the family and who lives with his wife, daughter and a servant on the other side of the house. the lady cookes amazing food and it is served to me 3 times a day. good deal, even though so far there has not beed that much interaction between me and the family. marianne has exactly the opposite situation with a poorer family but extremely sociable house wife to whom we just refer as "mama" of that house who wants to know everything and also tells you everything. sunday night was calm and hot and humid just like la ceiba itself. on monday the classes would begin.
27th of june
and so the next day which was thursday marianne and i woke up in our hotel and for breakfast decided to explore the typical honduran food. it was good!the meal consisted of corn tortillas, bean paste, fried eggs and a coffee. later that same day we had a typical honduran lunch which basically had the same ingredients plus avocado, meat and rice. simple but delicious and stomach friendly food. i don´t know how long i´ll be able to look at beans and say "mmm delicious" but it was a good start. and so on thursday it was time to leave the city of san pedro sula which during the daytime looked mildly put shabby with no proper pavements and the electricity cables running above your head. the daytime impression of san pedro sula was as depressing as the night time one. however one gets used to everything very fast and dodging the garbage on the streets seemed quite natural after a few hours of walking. not that there would be many places where to go or hang out because all seemed to be exactly the same and the city center had nothing to do with our typical perception of a city center. what locals refer to as a central park in real life is a small square where people sit about and chat. there is also a cathedral in a colonial style and the tallest building is a bank. the bank in its turn is guarded by at least some 10 men with guns, actually any place that had anything valuable in it like an electronics store would have a couple of armed men guarding it. rather shocking at first, but then on the other hand it feels way safer to take your money from the bank machine when you have guys with guns around you checking out the situation. san pedro sula is quite a dangerous place after all and that's why it is vital to do what ever you have to do BEFORE it gets dark which is at about 6pm. after this time it is simply too dangerous for the foreigners especially to go out on a street, moreover to an unknown part of the town since it could be populated by gang members. so given the hostile environment of san pedro sula marianne and i packed our stuff and took a taxi to the bus station to catch the first bus out of san pedro sula. the taxi driver was very chatty and friendly and dropped us off right at the station and happily waved good-bye. one thing he however purposefully forgot to tell us was that that day all of the buses of the country were on strike so there was no way to get out of the city. after sitting for one hour, another hour at the bus station listening to "maybe it'll be over by 1pm....then....it'll certainly be over by 5pm" we figured out no one knew when the strike would be over. there are no railways in honduras so the only means of transportation lies in the bus companies (or quite expensive airplanes). no buses-no jorney anywhere. hence after some hours spent in vane at the bus terminal it was time to get the taxi back to the hotel and hope the bus strike would be over by the next day, which was friday. while chilling at the bus terminal we got some company in a form of a canadian girl heather who was initially going to the island utila but was stuck in san pedro sula like we were and a chatty local chap fernando who accompanied us back to the city and showed around some places and well in general told us a bit about life in san pedro sula. that was the positive side of spending an extra day in the city. btw the curious thing about the local population and well i guess latino people in general:after the standard questions about the name, country etc you inevitably get asked if you have a significant other. there the questions however don´t end but rather get even more personal. it is definately odd at first but then one gets used to it and even develops a standard answer for these situations. marianne has even made a chart or more like a possibility tree called "conversations with latinos" where a certain answer leads to a certain question. so far, this chart has not failed even once :D.
Friday was then the day of the second try to get out of san pedro sula. we were told the strike was over and surprise surprise there was the same taxi driver driving us all over again with all our stuff to the same bust terminal. this time he was not very talkative. and so we got on that bus. taking a bus is definately an experience in honduras. all public buses are these old yellow american school buses which US probably donated to honduras and the whole front window is covered in stickers like "may god bless this bus and all its passengers" or "jesus=life, sin=death" and a whole bunch of crucifixes hanging here and there. it sort of makes the person who gets on this bus immediately think that most likely this bus runs only thanks to the holy spirit, because i presume the condition of the bus and the lowest quality diesel fuel contribute to the effect that this vehicle is not going to get far. people on the bus however are all very calm and no one even seems to mind the horribly loud radio and the reggaeton that is imposed on every single passenger of the bus. i guess the most important quality of the bus driver in this country is creative approach and stress resistance while the boy selling the tickets while the bus is driving like crazy has to be agile and posess a good memory to remember who paid and yet has to pay for the ride. there are many women with small children, even babies on the bus but no one seems to mind one bit babies screaming their heads off and reggaeton further violating your ears and the heavy mansoon rains that wash that road off the face of the earth and the steep up hill which causes immense trouble to the bus. after all as the old man by the lake yojoa told us "it is all in the hands of god".
Friday was then the day of the second try to get out of san pedro sula. we were told the strike was over and surprise surprise there was the same taxi driver driving us all over again with all our stuff to the same bust terminal. this time he was not very talkative. and so we got on that bus. taking a bus is definately an experience in honduras. all public buses are these old yellow american school buses which US probably donated to honduras and the whole front window is covered in stickers like "may god bless this bus and all its passengers" or "jesus=life, sin=death" and a whole bunch of crucifixes hanging here and there. it sort of makes the person who gets on this bus immediately think that most likely this bus runs only thanks to the holy spirit, because i presume the condition of the bus and the lowest quality diesel fuel contribute to the effect that this vehicle is not going to get far. people on the bus however are all very calm and no one even seems to mind the horribly loud radio and the reggaeton that is imposed on every single passenger of the bus. i guess the most important quality of the bus driver in this country is creative approach and stress resistance while the boy selling the tickets while the bus is driving like crazy has to be agile and posess a good memory to remember who paid and yet has to pay for the ride. there are many women with small children, even babies on the bus but no one seems to mind one bit babies screaming their heads off and reggaeton further violating your ears and the heavy mansoon rains that wash that road off the face of the earth and the steep up hill which causes immense trouble to the bus. after all as the old man by the lake yojoa told us "it is all in the hands of god".
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
25th of june
after long hours of packing and hardly any sleep it was time to get on the plane and hit the road or more like hit the air, because marianne and i were facing some 24h of travelling. check-in in helsinki was smooth and reliable, whether we´d see our luggage in miami was however unsure thanks to the effective paris airport. naturally in paris everyone was mildly said unfriendly and it all resembled a big chaos. some 10h later the chaos continued in miami. we did get our luggage (as unbelivable as it sounds) which made us quite glad but the insane security control in miami makes anyone far from glad and almost makes you feel like a terrorist for just being there. once the last bit of the jorney was over however we found ourselves in san pedro sula in honduras. once again the customs and the passport control took forever with all the standard questions like "why did you come to honduras and what are you going to do here". the good news though was that our backpacks made it even to san pedro sula, so it was time to leave the airport and face a pitch black night in san pedro sula. luckily even this time things went nicely and we were taken to our hotel by the hotel taxi which came to pick us up and so we just passed out in our beds.
the first impression of san pedro sula was that the city was dark, shabby and somehow odd. this oddness it then occured to me was the fact that most of the houses have only 1 floor in them and make no sense if one is searching for some kind of architectural style common to the city´s houses. houses are relatively small huts, made out of what ever that was available at the moment of building and they are put together in a completely random order. the view is somewhat depressing at first. a lonely horse by the side of the road near one house exacerbated this feeling.
the first impression of san pedro sula was that the city was dark, shabby and somehow odd. this oddness it then occured to me was the fact that most of the houses have only 1 floor in them and make no sense if one is searching for some kind of architectural style common to the city´s houses. houses are relatively small huts, made out of what ever that was available at the moment of building and they are put together in a completely random order. the view is somewhat depressing at first. a lonely horse by the side of the road near one house exacerbated this feeling.
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