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Who says you can't get through Central America in 3 weeks?!
We left Colombia on our little sailing trip into the Caribbean sea looking forward to getting involved. We had our Pirate names ready and everthing, I was Captain Gingerbeard. As it turned out the 5 days we were sailing we had no wind and had to motor about 90% of the journey. We did have some cool storms though, surrouding us with lightning.
The first views of Panama were pretty spectacular. There are loads of small tropical Islands just off the coast called the San Blas Islands. Most consisted of a sandy beach and few palm trees and nothing more. It really is like something out of a postcard. We found out that most of the sailors which are docked there are trying to disappear from something as the US coastguard is not allowed in the waters there. This was prominant on one boat called 'the runner' who we were told the owner used to work on the stock market .....enough said.
We met a few of the sailors on a bar (I use the word bar in the loosest form, it consisted of a straw hut) which had been built on one of the islands, without a doubt some of the wierdest people I have ever met. I think some of them had been at sea far to long! Later in the evening, after we had dosed our South African captin with so much rum he walked into a palm tree and reappeared looking like he had been in a bar room brawl, we had the challenge of rowing our dingy back to the boat. This really was a challenge as we had got the captain and his wife so smashed their navigational skills had vanished!
The rest of Central America has been a bit of a blur. Pretty much one stop in each country for no more than a couple days. I managed to get a bit of my engineering geekyness in at the Panama canal which is staggeringly massive. We also made a stop in a small town called Boquete which was a really cool little town. I thought I´d bring out a bit of the tarzan in me and do a cloudforest canopy zipline tour. I´m told you reach 50mph on the ziplines but i'm not convinced, it was fun all the same.
Costa Rica was seen from a bus window. Times are getting tight and Costa Rica is not a cheap country so we headed straight through to Nicaragua for a bit of Volcano climbing. The volcano we climbed was active so we were not allowed to the top which is probably a good thing as I was shattered climbing two thirds of the way. As we reached the top the cloud cleard and sun came out to reveal some brilliant veiws of Lake Nicaragua and the surrounding volcanos. This was not so good for my skin however, by the time we finished the four hour walk back into town I was so sunburnt even the locals were pointing and laughing. Fun times.
I also visited the town of Granada for the annual bull running festival. This basically involves hundreds of cowboys running around the town on their horses getting so drunk most of them get trampled by the same horses they are meant to be riding. Supposedly there are also bulls running around the streets but we failed to find them, probably a good thing in hindsight..... I was more drunk than most of the cowboys.
We went into Honduras for two main reasons, to go diving and white water rafting. The rafting was pretty cool, the best bits being stopping half way to jump off the rocks. The diving was truely awsome though, the visibility was amazing and the reef and fish were so colourful. On our final dive after surfacing we were told by the boat captain he had seen dolphins so as an added bonus we got to swim with them. When I say swim, I really mean try and keep up with them but I did manage to get fairly close, unfortunately I did not get to ride one but my time will come.
After a brief stop in El Savador, just long enough to see that it's true everyone carries a gun and crime is rife, we made it Guatemala. I´m currently in Antigua, hopefully going to climb an active volcano tomorrow and poke some lava. The travel agents are all being a bit cagey though as it errupted in May killing all the tourist on it. They don´t seem to agree that just makes it more exciting.
I fly out of Mexico in 7 days to California where I´m going to recharge for a couple of weeks before starting my road trip to New York. I still have two spare seats in the car so get in touch if you fancy it!
Hope everyone is good, give me a shout and let me know what you´ve been upto, it´s nice to hear you´re alive from time to time.... well some of you.
Does anyone actually read this?
Gibb
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