Puente de las Americas

We went for a trip to the puente de las americas.  The main bridge over the canal.  Not really a tourist spot, but it gives good views of the canal so we went to take photos.  Turned into a real hastle.  Buses aren't allowed to stop anywhere near the bridge because its the trans american highway and not just some city street.  After asking around we found one bus driver who would drop us off, but then we had to manage our own way back.  We walked out along the bridge as far as we could ignoring the honks and warnings from passing vehicles (ayudantes were hanging out of the buses waving (I assumed warning us to turn back), but eventually the "walking" path we were on ended completely and there would have been nothing between us and the interamericana.  Took our photos and turned back.  

Eventually a hotel van full of tourists stopped at the lookout point and were negotiated a ride back.  The driver wanted $10 a piece to take us back to city center where we could hop a bus.  We talked him down to $1 but only for a ride right to the other side of the bridge (interamericana highway).  Sure enough he dropped us off right on the side of the highway.  No sidewalk, mayber 2-3 feet of shoulder and a busy highway next to us.  He didn't even wait for an exit.  What a dick.  We walked a ways, found an exit and walked some more.  Found a fallen coconut and then a random machete on the side of the road.  So we did what anyone would do when they find both a coconut and a machete on the side of the the road. We chopped open the coconut and drank some (it was not good).  Got stopped by a cop who told us we were going to get robbed walking around that neighborhood like that.  He flagged down some empty bus and told the driver to take us to the main bus terminal.  20 minutes later and one free bus ride, we were there.

Not smoothly done, but at least we made it to the bridge and got our photos.  Good day!

The Black Forest

After a quick few days in Esteli I skipped town and headed to the cloud forests outside Matagalpa, Nicaragua.  The only real access to the few existing trails in the area are from the finca at Selva Negra.  Nestled in the forested mountain slopes of the same name, the finca has both a working coffee plantation and a hotel/restaurant on it's grounds.  And what a hotel!  More of a resort really.  If anyone feels like getting married, or maybe a nice family reunion some time (hint), this'd be the place to do it.  Just beautiful.  Next time we do a reunion, this is my suggestion.  I figure if we all have to fly anyway, why not Nicaragua?  Plus the rooms are cheaper...

The surrounding hillsides are accessible through a web of well maintained trails.  Not a huge number of trails, but definitely enough for several good days of hiking.  I really don't mind hiking the same trails repeatedly though, so it would be easy to spend a week in the area.  Supposedly they have quetzals and mountain lions in the area.  I had to settle for howler monkeys and toucans.  Oh and agoutis.  Oh and tree frogs.  Freaking tree frogs!  Awesome.  I had to go out in the middle of the night with a flashlight to find them, but a couple of hours of checking all the bromeliads I could reach and I found a few.  Kinda plain, tiny, brown ones.  But hey, they were still tree frogs living in bromeliads!  It's just a matter of time before I find a red-eyed tree frog, or poison dart frog.  To that end, I went a bought a mirror when I got to Grenada which I'll tie to the end of branch so I can see into bromeliads up above my head.  That should increase my chances a bit.

Oh and if Governor Richardson is reading this, the owner, Eddy Kuhl, asked me to say hi for him.  Apparently he wrote a book which, in part, mentions your grandfather here in Matagalpa.

El Salvador

Photos

Twelve days is too short a time to try and take in a country, but even that required an inner struggle against the half of me that desperately wants to get to South America sometime in this lifetime.  I know it isn't fair, but I just have to say it.  I liked Guatemala better.  Granted it had 7 weeks to grow on me, and Xela had really started to feel a little like home, but I just liked it better.

El Salvador doesn't have the smoking volcanoes or gorgeous lakes, or the Mayan ruins like Guatemala.  Mostly though, I just miss the friends I had made there.  Because, while they may not be smoking, El Salvador does have to truly massive, volcanoes outside San Salvador and San Miguel (and others that I didn't see).  It does have at least one nice lake at Suchitoto where I spent three days relaxing and enjoying the view.  It has some excellent beaches, though the half of me that wants to go south south south, got the better of me and I only visited one.  But that one treated me very well.  Treated me to one of the most amazing lightning storms I can remember seeing.  And finally, El Salvador has several striking museums about the recent civil war.

El Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen in San Salvador and the Museo de la Revolucion Salvadoreno in Perquin were each filled with old black and white photos of guerillas, activist, and others from the war, along with descriptions of each.  The Museo de la Revolucion, in particular, was quite moving.  Mostly because Marcos, the man watching on duty while I was there, took the time to talk to me, in spanish, about many of the photos on display.  He had been a fighter for the FMLM thoughout the war and knew many of the faces in the photos personally.  Men and women that had died in the war.  Speaking to someone who knew them, knew there names, and was friends some of them, gave the faces in the photos life in a much more emotional way.

Oh and papusas.  El Salvador has papusas and I really, really like papusas.

Last days of Guatemala

for me                                              

Photos

Well I've left Guatemala.  Had a wonderful time there.  Met great people, climbed active volcanos, jumped off cliffs, played in the ocean, had a parasitic larvae grow in my chest, cheered on the local futbol team, learned and then forgot how to swear in several foreign languages, drank a lot.  I could have easily stayed longer, there was so much more to see, and Xela had become like home after a month and a half.  It's amazing how quickly a town starts to feel familiar and comfortable.  I knew the markets, the shops, the cafes, bars, parks...  It was a bit hard to leave, but the urge to move south was irresistible in the end.  Guess I know how migrating animals must feel.  Powerless against the desire to keep moving.

Made a quick weekend trip down to the beach at Montericco.  Wide, black sand beach, straight as an arrow.  It was great to see the Pacific again.  It has a different feel from the carribean.  There is something about looking out over the ocean and knowing if you went in that specific direction you wouldn't hit land again until Japan, or Australia, or Philipines or... somewhere else on the other side of the entire planet.  The Caribbean doesn't feel like that at all.  It is just pretty to look at.

My last week in the country was spent in San Pedro la Laguna on the western shore of Lago de Atitlan.  It was a nice enough town.  Full of foreigners, which was a big change from Xela, but I guess I can hardly complain since I raised their number by one myself.  The lake was large, deep, and gorgeous. Surrounded by three volcanos and extremely steep mountains on all sides.  Getting there and leaving by chicken bus is an exercise in switchbacks and nerves.  Tried to go kayaking several times only to get rebuffed by the wind.  Settled for jumping off cliffs into the lake instead.  I think it worked out pretty well.  Also stumbled upon some sort of avocado market.  More avacados in one place than I've ever seen in my life.  It was incredible.  I. Love. Avacados. Mmm. Avacados.