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After getting back to Antigua We bummed around for a couple hours before taking a shuttle to Panajachel on the way to San Pedro la Laguna on the shores of Lake Atitlan- reputably one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It's in the crater of an extinct volcano and is surrounded by other volcanos. We stayed the night in Pana at a Guatemalan-born-Japanese-family hotel, splurging slightly on an actual hotel rather than backpackers. No baths involved but the shower was unbelievable! Inside the hotel was a sushi restaurant, owned and ran oddly not by the family but instead by an American gentleman. Hmmm.
Previous to this my only experience with sushi had been a bit of a friend's lunch, from one of those mall foodcourt deals, and I hadn't been overwhelmed by it- had actually decided sushi was rubbish and what the devil had the Japanese been thinking. Nick on the other hand is from Melbourne, home of some of the best international cuisine around (he tells me.) and had been stoked about the restaurant--it was actually the deciding factor on why we'd chosen to stay there. Looking at the menu the only things I recognised were a soup and one of the rice dishes…but adventure called and we ordered a couple of dishes I can't remember and couldn't pronounce. When they arrived though- yum! One was a salmon based dish, the other a medley of maybe 5 or 6 different foods, shrimp, salmon, white fish etc. Also pretty yum. So, while still not at the top of my 'Favourite Foreign Foods' list, I'd definitely give it another whirl sometime.
The next morning we caught a water taxi across to San Pedro. Crossing the lake took just over 30 minutes non-stop, and that was just a little corner of it- it was massive! We arrived into San P, got off the boat and immediately were accosted by a gent from the local tourism office ('See, here's his ID!') who offered us: horse riding/hiking up to the Indian's Nose to watch the sun come up/coffee plantation tour/accommodation recommendations/accommodation guide/zipline-come-flying fox/restaurant advice/anything we might need. We took him up on the accommodation guide side of things as the hostel we wanted to stay at was meant to be a bit of a maze away. Along the way he took us to a hotel which was being renovated. It was ok but nothing brilliant, and the price was quite steep, so we carried on to Yo Mama's Casa. There were a couple rooms available so we grabbed one, dumped our stuff and went exploring.
The weather was hot so after a couple hours we stopped off at the Buddha Bar, a nice little pub bar café type thing and grabbed some food and drinks. The Opening Ceremony for the Olympics was being advertised for the next afternoon-- in my life I'd never watched either the Opening or Closing ceremonies only the highlights on the news so was determined to do it this time. 2pm Friday rolled up and we headed back to Buddha Bar to settle in. There were still a few empty seats so we grabbed a couple and along with a few dozen others got ready for the ceremony. Brilliant! I think my favourite part was when they played on the big screens Daniel Craig (the latest James Bond) strolling into Buckingham Palace to say hi to Queenie, the two of them jumping into a helicopter and heading across London towards the Olympic Village, then arriving at the stadium. Cut back to real time, and a helicopter did fly over the stadium and hover. Going back to the pre-recorded James Bond part, 007 coolly looks out the helicopter door then moves to one side as HRH Queen Elizabeth makes her debut as a Bond Girl and jumps out of the helicopter with a parachute strapped to her back and Bond, James Bond, just after her. Just as they jump the screen went back to real time, in time to see two people jump from the helicopter! Brillliantly done, well done Liz on playing along! Hah, then the Queen opens the Games with the very simply "I declare these Olympic Games Open." No fancy 20 minute speeches, just a quick good luck wish to everyone and it was done.
When the athletes were coming into the stadium, cheers went up from the tourists in the bar as their countries appeared- I think I was the only Kiwi but when you're going for quality not quantity (lol), just one person doesn't matter. As the Guatemalans came onscreen though we all went mad, cheering like crazies. I mean, we're on the other side of the world practically, and a completely different way of life away, yet everyone in the bar was together enjoying this ceremony and athletes and it no one gave a damn where you were from. Truly I think that's what the games are about. Gold, Silver, Bronze medals are all well and good and a huge honour to win, but it's the different countries of the world getting together and not trying to bomb each other, and in fact actually having a laugh and getting on well- that's what the true success is.
Our days in San Pedro passed sunnily. We had a massage at some hotpools nearby, bought food from a shop so could cook for ourselves. Decided not to cook for ourselves so went out for many meals, relaxed in hammocks, read books and generally just bummed around for a week- bliss. Originally the plan had been to skip through Honduras and head straight for Nicaragua, but someone had mentioned there were some great Mayan ruins just across the Honduras border, in Copan, so we changed our plans and decided to head there instead.
The shuttle back from San Pedro towards Antigua started poorly (for me). Having outgrown car sickness years ago, it's made an appearance now (seems to have happened to a few people, must be the roads). The first hour or so from San P was winding, uphill/downhill, more corners, hot and generally not great. I tried to doze through some of it but really didn't work, needing at one point to get the van to pull over for a minute just so I could get out for a second. Happily I hadn't had any breakfast so there was nothing to make an appearance but I did feel pretty crook. From there on though the roads were fine, straight and flat, so all was well. We had a couple hours in Antigua before jumping on the connecting shuttle to Copan. A few hours into it there was a huge queue of traffic- locals were protesting something and had staged a demonstration on the road, so our intrepid driver does a u-turn and takes us along a dusty back road, skipping the demonstration completely. Only to hit miles of roadworks a little later. However, fun times being what they were, we eventually got to Copan- right as it started to pour down. The driver had originally said he'd take us to the main square but once we got into the town and unloaded the rest of the people (different spot) he said to hold fire and he'd take us all the way to the Iguana Azul where we were staying.
That little extra bit of taking us to the hostel saved us from being drowned, as the rain only got heavier over the next while. There were 2 others in the shuttle with us also going to the Iguana… the driver stopped at the curb outside and in the space it took us to get our backpacks and get inside everyone was soaked. The owner of the hostel showed everyone to their rooms and wandered back to the more lucrative B&B he ran next door, after giving us a quick warning to not take money out of atms at nighttime. The doorman was a lot more helpful, actually telling us where the atms were and also letting us know where the restaurants were. I made a quick skype call to mum to let her know we'd survived another border crossing unharmed then we went in search of open restaurants and food.
We were in Copan for maybe3 or 4 days, one of those days we spent the afternoon at 'Macaw Mountain' a local wildlife refuge park where they concentrated on rehabilitating injured birds, mainly the large parrots and macaws. It was incredible seeing these huge birds and very sad seeing the state some were in, although most were in good condition or improving. The people who ran the park had also dammed off part of the river which flowed through it creating a swimming hole. Nick was too chicken to get in but I did and it was lovely and cool. This tiny wee dot of a girl who's mum ran the café in the grounds wanted to swim too and kicked up a huge stink when her mum wouldn't let her as she'd not brought her swim floats along. But the little one calmed down and enjoyed the splash-fest with us that followed.
Copan is known for its Maya ruins, the reason we had decided to go there in the first place, so we couldn't leave without that main event. A short taxi ride and we were there. It was pretty pricey at around US$15 per person to get in, but well worth it as we spent hours wandering round the huge stones and staircases- and skulking behind school groups so we could eavesdrop on the guide (would have been another $25 or something if we'd wanted one…). There was also a visitor centre on site but after a few hours in the sun we decided to pike and just headed back into town to relax.
Ha, Honduras bus system. We needed to catch a bus from Copan to the San Pedro de Sula in a couple of days time and after an overnight stay head down to Leon in Nicaragua via Honduras' capital, Tegulcigalpa (pronounced, near as we can guess, as 'Te goosey galpa'. Not 'Te goosey gander'). We tracked down with google's help where the bus ticket office was in Copan, and headed there to get tickets.
At first we were confused- we were at the right address, probably, but the trouble was it just looked like a normal door to a house, with no signs or anything. As we were about to give up and try something else a woman came to the door with her cleaning apron on. We asked and sure enough, we were at the ticket office. We explained to her we needed 2 tickets to San Pedro for two days' time but she didn't seem to understand my Spanish, although she did admit this was the ticket office. Which happened to resemble someone's living room, family photos and all. A random guy came in at that stage, think he was a taxi driver…anyway he spoke a bit of English so we went through the process again. After chatting with her for a little bit (explaining what we needed) he said all was well and if we wanted to we could either get tickets there, or on the bus. We thought it better to get them then so let them know. The woman then butted in and said that she didn't have tickets and it would take ages to get them so just get them on the bus. Brilliant customer services, that lady.
Back at the hostel we were relaxing in the garden over some fried chicken, sharing the table with a girl from Dublin, Finn. She was taken with our adventure, having experienced something similar just beforehand and had been wondering if it was just her. She was also planning to get to Leon in 2 days but would be leaving Copan tomorrow to go part way there and avoid a stupid o'clock departure time. We hoped to meet her in Leon, and went our separate ways.
On departure day we got down to the bus stop/sports field with plenty of time, getting tickets to San Pedro no worries. The bus journey took ages but we eventually arrived there and found a hostel. Now, part of the reason we'd chosen San P over Tegulcigalpa was that in San Pedro there were cinemas showing films in English, and my darling had been hanging out to see the latest Batman movie. After settling in to a hostel we asked about the movies, jumped in a taxi, and headed to the cinema-then had to wait a couple of hours before the next showing. Movie was good though as I hadn't seen any of the others, perhaps I didn't enjoy it as fully as I might have. (have since downloaded the previous two and seen both).
Our bus from San Pedro to Leon was scheduled to leave around 5am and we had to be there by 4.30, yuck. We'd arranged with the hostel for a taxi at 4, but whether the guy didn't call the driver or what, no one showed up. The morning receptionist said sometimes, if a taxi driver felt he had made enough money the day previous, he just wouldn't turn up…might have been that. Anyway around 4.15 the morning guy called the owner (who happens to be some famous singer in Honduras) and she took us to the station so all was well. We jumped on the bus and went straight to sleep.
Our '20 minute' stop in Tegulcigalpa turned into almost an hour, dropping off some people, picking up others (including Finn), huge queues for one toilet, and even longer queue for the single food stand in the area. Anyway eventually it all worked out and we moved on.
The border crossing into Nicaragua was singular. The bus wheels were sprayed with some kind of insecticide (or, maybe it was just water. Who knows?) everyone's luggage was unloaded, and we had to go through a customs bag search-- never happened before in the whole continent! I had to feel sorry for my customs guys as my bag was loaded with crap- jandals, clothes, the electrical cords. Bless the man, he asked if I had anything to declare then just let me through. Nick was the same.
After another hour or two just hanging round the border area, we were able to get back on the bus and carry on to Leon.
But that's for another time.
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