The Wonders of Salt

La Paz, Salar de Uyuni, BOLIVIA: 18 - 23 Dec. 2009

As my flight arrived in La Paz at 1am my first view of this amazing city was at night. And what a view - the city, the highest capital city in the world at 3660m, is built in a canyon so buildings of all shapes and sizes cling to its sides. In the morning the sight became even memorable as I saw the snow-capped Mt. Illamani looming over the city.

As arranged, I met up with my friends Sinead and Gavin, who were coming to the end of their 12-month trip back home to New Zealand from Dublin. After nearly four months of travel it was very nice to see some familar faces.

We headed south on a night bus for the ¨must do¨tour of Salar de Uyuni - the world´s largest salt flats. We spent three days driving in a jeep around part of the 12,000 sq km area. The landscape here is simply unique. We visited red lakes and green lakes, saw llamas, vicunas and flamingos, stood next to bubbling mud geysers, relaxed in a sulfuric hot spring pool, slept in a hotel made from salt and, of course, spent a fun few hours trying to take photos that make use of the optical illusion created by the flat, white, desolate salt plains.

It certainly is an amazing natural part of the world, and a great introduction to Bolivia.

Pura Vida

Monteverde, Manuel Antonio, San Gerardo, San Jose, COSTA RICA: 8 - 17 Dec. 2009

My last stop in Central America was always going to be San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, as this was where my flight to Bolivia was departing. To give myself more time in Guatemala and Costa Rica, I decided to fly between those two countries. This unfortunately meant that I missed out on El Salvador and Nicaragua, but I thought this option better than doing a whistle-stop tour while travelling through on buses.

Costa Rica has a very different feel to the rest of Central America and its tourism is certainly more developed. Here it is all about nature and the multiple ways that you can experience the amazing bio-diversity of the country.

First stop for me was Monteverde with its incredible nature reserve. I spent a day walking around the huge park and I did a guided night hike where the guide pointed out tarantulas, snakes, sloths (everyone is obsessed with seeing sloths in this country!) among many other animals. Then it was onto the more extreme way to see the reserve - from above flying along ziplines! It was great fun, especially the "Superman" zipline at the end. The picture below does not do it justice - that zipline was over 1 km long and in the middle I was about 200 metres above the valley floor.
From the mountains of Monteverde, I next went to the beaches of Manuel Antonio. Again, there was plenty of wildlife to be seen (especially monkeys jumping from tree to tree) and this time the nature reserve was surrounding by pristine, paradise beaches.

After chilling on the beach, I needed a bit more activity. So I teamed up with a guy from Quebec and we did the two-day climb up the highest mountain in Costa Rica, Cerro Chirripo (3820m). On a clear day you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans from the top. Unfortunately we didn't get that view, but it was still worth the hike.

Then back to San Jose (which isn't all that great) where I did a day trip white water rafting on a river ranked by National Geographic to be in the top five rivers in the world for rafting.


What a way to spend my last day in Central America!

Costa Ricans are constantly saying "pura vida" - literally it means pure life, but I think it sort of translates as "happy days". During my 9 days in Costa Rica, I certainly enjoyed the pura vida.

Chaotic transport to calm locations

Antigua, Lake Atitlan, Xela, Lanquin, Biotopo Del Quetzal, Guatemala City, GUATEMALA: 20 Nov. - 7 Dec. 2009

Not all of my time in Guatemala was spent on top of volcanoes. I spent two weeks (mostly with a guy from Sydney) travelling around the country. For the most part our form of transport was the infamous chicken bus, i.e. old school buses from the US that have been pimped and which are generally packed with people carrying all sorts of things (like chickens, which alas I did not see on any of the buses that I took). Through a system which could be the exemplar of the phrase "organised chaos", the buses work and connections are successfully made.

But Guatemala is not all about choas. I stayed three days in pretty, cobblestoned, volcano-surrounded Antigua, before moving onto the beautiful Lake Atitlan. There we spent three days criss-crossing the lake visiting its villages, one of which had a bizarre cigar smoking, silk tie wearing wodden god. My three days in Lanquin were spent chilling out in hammocks, floating down rivers in a tube having a beer, swimming through caves, jumping into rivers and visiting a bat cave at sunset - it was freaky sitting in the cave in the dark knowing that hundred of bats were flying just past me every minute.From there I headed south to the Biotopo del Quetzal nature reserve. The quetzal, which is Guatemala's national bird and the name of its currency, is famously elusive. Luckily I managed to see two, thanks to the 6 year old daughter of the guesthouse owners. We became best friends once I showed her that I could complete ten jumps over her skipping rope. She banged on my door the following morning to bring me to the place where she had just spotted a quetzal. So my first bird watching experience was a success.

Then onto Guatemala City. Everyone recommends avoiding it, but I had to come to get a flight. In the end I spent a very nice two days there, which included a sunny Sunday stroll around the zoo where I had one of the local snacks - corn on the cob, smothered with mayo and a red sauce, and sprinkled with cheese. Tasty, but very messy to eat, especially with a beard! Admittedly, I heeded everyone´s warnings so I didn´t go out after dark. Still, it was a nice way to end my time in Guatemala. Next stop, Costa Rica.

Volcano Trekking

Acatenango, Pacaya, Tajumulco, GUATEMALA: 22 - 30 Nov. 2009

My first week back in Guatemala involved three great hikes up volcanoes.

(1) Volcan Acatenango - 3976m.

The 4am start, a heavy bag filled with camping gear and food, the gravelly volcanic terrain (near the top, for every two steps up you would slide one back down), and the altitude (its the third highest mountain in Central America) made this a tough seven hour hike to the top. It was all worth it however when we pitched our tents in the crater and then sat on the crater's rim to watch the sunset. While Acatenango has not erupted in 30 years, Volcan Fuego is right next to it and it erupts constantly. Sitting on top of one volcano, drinking a glass of wine, watching a volcano blow out smoke and lava every ten minutes as the sun set was an amazing experience. Then up bright and early to see the sunrise. An unforgettable hike.

(2) Volcan Pacaya - 2552m.

Although it was only an hour and a half hike to the top, it was certainly a hike that stands out. The heat emanating from the ground of this very active volcano was tremedous, so much so that I felt I had to keep moving to prevent from shoes from melting - a far cry from the bogs of the Wicklow Mountains!
Standing next to a river of lava was a crazy experience, and the marshmallows we cooked over the lava were the perfect complement to the scene.

(3) Volcan Tajumulco - 4220m.

Another 4am start and another heavy bag, but again it was all worth it to get to the top of the highest point in Central America. Since we camped 200 metres below the summit, we had to get up at 3.30am to hike to the top for sunrise. Sitting on the top of Central America in a cozy sleeping bag watching an amazing sunrise with erupting volcanoes visible in the distance was certainly a great way to start a day!

Viva La Revolución!

Utila & Copán Ruinas, HONDURAS: 13-19 Nov. 2009

I left Belize for Honduras on a speedboat (my border crossings are getting more and more interesting) and after a bus and another boat I made it to Utila, one of the Bay Islands. After all the recent political turmoil and curfews etc. in Honduras, I decided to attend an event thrown by the mayor in the run-up to the end-of-month elections. It was a beach bbq with free food, free beer and free rum all day long - if this is what comes with political revolutions, maybe we should have one in Ireland. I listened to the mayor's speech and I think I correctly translated part of it as saying that his party's red-white-red flag stands for blood-peace-blood. But at that stage I was having too much fun to analyse the political significance of that statement.

Apart from the free beer, a further reason why I think I didn't fully understand the socio-political happenings in Honduras is that I spent most of my time underwater. I successfully completed my PADI open water scuba diving license and did a couple of fun dives - swimming underneath a turtle was one of many highlights.

Back on the mainland, I spent a morning at the Mayan ruins at Copán. There were very few tourists so it was pretty much just me and the macaws.
It was a good week in Honduras; now its back to Guatemala.

Sailing and snorkeling in beautiful Belize

Caye Caulker to Placencia, BELIZE: 9-13 Nov. 2009.

As our plans were diverging, I said bye to the four people I'd been travelling with for the previous few weeks and I hit for Belize (I plan to return to Guatemala to see the south in a few weeks). But I wasn't on my own for long as I met people on the bus and in the hostel - it seems you have to make an effort to not end up travelling with people!

Tiny Belize (similar in size to Wales) is unique in Central America as it is English-speaking (it was called British Honduras until 1981) and it has a definite Caribbean feel with reggae music everywhere. After a night drinking beer in hammocks on the beautiful and laid-back northern island of Caye Caulker, I started a three day sailing trip that took me south. This trip was a highlight of Central America for me - it was three days of snorkeling and fishing - each night we ate what we caught, which included lobster and barracuda. The first night we camped on an "island" which was little more that a patch of sand not much bigger than a tennis court on its own in the middle of the ocean.

It'll be hard to beat the experience of sitting in the sun reading a good book with my legs dangling over the edge of the boat as a group of dolphins swam beside us. And the free rum was good too.

Jungle Ruins

Palenque, MEXICO & Tikal, GUATEMALA: 5-9 Nov. 2009

After our initial bus was cancelled because a mudslide blocked the road, we arrived in the jungle of Palenque in the lashing rain - I had forgotten that jungles and rain go together. After a night in a jungle cabin, we spent the day in the amazing Mayan ruins. The jungle mist gave the ruins a mystical feel - a very memorable place.

After spending the next day at waterfalls, it was time to leave Mexico. Our route to Guatemala involved a bus to the river that marks the border, than a motorised canoe across the river, and then another bus - it ranks as one of the best border crossings I've done.
We stayed on the lake island town of Flores - we took advantage of its location by ending our Saturday night out with a late night swim in the lake. I then did a day trip to the ruins at Tikal - again these were Mayan ruins and they too were set in a jungle, but they were still mightily impressive.