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Here's part two written much much later than planned. Having left part one on a thrilling cliffhanger, I'm sure everyone's on the edges of their seats...
The next stage of our trip was going to involve working our way down through Central America from Guatemala to Panama in a fairly hasty 3 weeks. However on check-in at Havana airport, a fat grumpy Copa airways man informed us that without an onward flight or bus ticket out of Guatemala, he would not be issuing us with our tickets, even though the onward flight out of panama clearly meant we would not be taking up residence. After pleading in a mix of spanish and english, he still wouldn't budge, so instead of buying another plane ticket we used our connection in Panama and decided to reduce our trip to just Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Clearly all Siobhan's fault again.
We arrived in Panama and discovered what the weather during the rainy season could really look like. After getting drenched on our 5 second journey to the taxi, we quickly decided to move on to Costa Rica and save Panama for the resturn leg. It was still raining after an 18ish hour bus ride to San Jose, so we decided to push on through the tiredness and discomfort and move on to somewhere the rain wouldn't really matter, a cloud forest up a mountain at Monteverde. A mix up with the booking meant we got a luxury room in a cabin for the same price each night as the box room we'd picked. It was a really pleasant place with a lot of things to see and do. In the forests we saw sloths, a porcupipe, loads of birds, a range of different spiders including a tarrantula, and a whole host of other insects.
Still plagued by rain, we decided to try our luck further north in Nicaragua. Granada was our first stop, a nice colonial town on the edge of nicaragua's huge lake. The centre of the town was very well preserved, but seemed to be overrun by american tourists. We found a cheap hostel with a very friendly bunch of Germans and managed to get through a huge amount of different drinks during our stay. We made good use of the available kitchen, getting our food supplies from the markets in the more run-down areas of the town.
Next stop was the Isla de Ometepe, an island in the lake made up from two volcanoes, one active, the other extinct, with an area of swampy/solid ground inbetween. We spent the first few days relaxing on or near one of the beaches, thankfully the rain didn't really make much of an appearance, and the only storms were off in the distance providing impressive light shows at night. We then moved around to a place on the extinct volcano, which was in a much more agricultural and less visited area. The nicaraguan family we stayed with were really friendly (as were almost all of the other Nicaraguans we met), and made everyone who stayed there feel really welcome. We got a bit more active there, hiking halfway up the volcano to a waterfall, canoeing to a couple of islands with monkeys on, and canoeing out to the beautiful swampy area between the volcanoes, which was full of wildlife including turtles and iguanas.
Running out of time before our final flight to south america, we worked our way back to Panama City, making a few stops along the way. In Panama City, we stayed in a safe section of an apparently dangerous area, the guidebook and several other people had warned us not to stray too far from the main road, but already being a seasoned traveller, I decided to go for a wander on my own. Two blocks in and a couple of women had warned me not to go further, another half a block and a large bloke quite forcefully told me to turn back, at that point I listened. Getting around the city on the privately owned buses was definately an experience, each bus driver would have their buses painted with colourful wild designs, including the insides which also have a variety of lights, massive stereo systems, dangly things, and other decorations.
We did the obligatory thing while there and visited the canal and museum. Seeing the scale of the thing, and the efforts needed during its construction was impressive. We watched a couple of small ships go through the locks, and even though Shiv'd not been interested in sticking around for some big ships to come through, I got her to watch and afterwards admitted that it was 'pretty cool'. As a treat to her, I somehow managed to get dragged into a cinema in a large shopping centre to watch New Moon, I justified it to myself as a learning experience as I could read the spanish subtitles.
At 3am the morning of the flight out to Columbia, Siobhan collapsed in the bathroom (ensuite) waking me up inconsiderately. I got up to see what she was playing at, and found her covered in sweat, roasting, and more incoherent than usual. After a quick examination I got her up, at which point she partially collapsed again. I couldn't believe she was doing this to me, I was busy thinking how I was going to get her to a hospital and miss the flight, but slurring away she insisted that she just needed to lie down for a bit. Finally the time came to leave for the airport, after a few changes of mind, she decided she could make it there if I packed everything for her, carried it, and did everything for her at the airport. It was a fun several hours, but by the afternoon we'd made it to Bogota. We still have no idea what was wrong with her, aside from a cough which lasted several weeks, she was feeling much better after a few days.
Onwards through Columbia...
- comments
Pedro I have thoroughly enjoyed eating a pork pie whilest reading part two of the epic journey. I'm surprided you fell for the whole "I'm faint, carry my bags" trick from Shiv, but I am pleased that she's got you pegged mike. Take care out there. x