Our shuttle to Antigua left at midday so it was a very leisurely start to the day (again!). The shuttle was the standard minivan, with our big bags on the roof and little bags inside. It was packed but thankfully the trip was only 2.5 hours. We are definitely getting a big bus for our 9 hour trip out of Antigua.
Antigua was everything we expected – lots of low rise colourful buildings and incredible cobbled streets – never driven on roads anything quite like it. We checked into our ultra cheap hostel – Lirios, Hotel Boutique– costing us a pricey $A57 per night. It was fine, a decent size room and working Wifi. What more could we want? Oh yes, a private bathroom. We headed out for a bit of a roam and to grab some food. We explored the main square, loads of ruins dating back from the catastrophic earthquake of 1773 and also checked out our hotel – Meson Panza Verde– that we had booked for 3 nights with Clayton and Em – we were basically ignored as we wondered into the reception area, looking like a couple of street sleepers. However the hotel looked amazing, lots of beautiful little nooks and crannies. It also boasted the best restaurant in Antigua but it looked way to staid for Deryn and I. We headed back to our hotel and arrange to meet a local contact of one of the tour guides for an insiders tips on what to do in Antigua. He was a very friendly chap that gave us 5 must do ideas.
We jumped in a tuk tuk next morning to Panza Verde to await for Clayton and Em. They arrived soon after 2.30 so we were back out on the town by 3. Deryn found a well regarded local restaurant which unfortunately looked better than it tasted. We spent an hour or so exploring before the goodies stockpiled back at the hotel beckoned. Deryn had booked Clayton and Em the hotel suite – or the party room as we called it – so we started there before heading to the roof for amazing views over the surrounding area and Agua Volcano. The night was finished back in the party room with games of cribbage until 2am.
It was a very slow start the next day with very little activity until late afternoon where we headed out a a bit of a wonder and a meal at Hector Bistro. We tried to get a came of cards going back at the party room but the enthusiasm was limited so we called it early. Everyone was a lot more enthused the next day and so we tracked down a business (Simoon Rentals & Tours)that hired ATV’s and rented a couple for a 4 hour tour. Good value at Q800 ($A160) per couple. The horse riding and bike tours both proved too difficult. We were assigned a tour guide called Freddy – a US educated local who had returned to Antigua a few years earlier. He was excellent. We started the tour with a 30 minute drive to the local town of Santo Tomas reasonably high up Agua volcano to explore the local Sunday market. It was a very indigenous experience wandering around all the stalls to the sounds a fire and brimstone preacher bellowing over the PA system. Apparently the locals are religious, only turning up when food or drink is offered post service.
We then headed back down the volcano to a local chocolate factory for a tour on how the chocolate is produced with a tasting. Obviously this was followed up with some purchases. We then literally walked around the corner to for another tour and tasting of the local wines – I wish I paid more attention but I cannot recall what the wines were made from except it wasn’t grapes and they tasted like a desert wine. No purchases were made. It was then back on our bikes for the ride across to the other side of Antigua to the El Cerro de la Cruz – a cross overlooking a view of Antigua. It was a bit of a mission driving to it as it was so busy buy at least on an ATV it was a lot easier than a car. From the lookout it was up the hill for lunch at the Earth Lodge – a large avocado farm. It started bucketing down on the way (with lighting and thunder) so by the time we parked our bikes and walked the 300m to the lodge, we were drenched. Thankfully the Lodge gave us some towels to dry ourselves off before we enjoyed the best burgers we’d had for a while – or maybe it was just that we were so cold and any hot food would have tasted great. It stopped raining so we returned to our bikes for the journey home. We gave a bunch of very cute local kids a lift to the top of the hill before heading down the hill. Of course it started raining again so by the time we reached the Simoon office we were all drenched so Freddy grabbed the tour car and drove us back to our hotel. Bravo!!
We headed out for a Texan BBQ meal at Pappys BBQ – why not. This was followed by a bit of a session in a local bar – including a few shots of mescal – before the mandatory game of cribbage back in the party room. We were very sad to say goodbye to Clayton and Em the following morning but also looking forward to doing nothing for a couple of days. We returned to Lirios for an afternoon of chilling before grabbing a meal with Jacko, an Aussie that Taylor met when she was travelling through South America. He recommended Porque No– a very cool little restaurant that involved climbing into a loft (above the bar) to grab a table to eat. Jacko was lovely, although we think he was a bit disappointed that we were not the party animals that Taylor had talked us up to be.
We managed to get a late checkout to enjoy the lake views for as long as possible. We wondered into town quite early for breakfast at Circles Cafe & Bakery before returning for a swim and to pack up. The boat ride to Panajachel was incredibly bumpy, not sure where the chop came from as it wasn’t windy. Another example of the incredible natural forces that are present on Lake Atitlán. It was a 600m walk to our hotel – Regis Hotel Spa. We decided to stay in the heart of the town rather than the alternative hotel a 15 min walk outside of town lakeside. On reflection, we should have stayed on the lake given how wonderful it was.
The hotel looked lovely and our room was nice enough, but unfortunately no wifi in the rooms. However this was offset by the hot springs and a temescal. We unpacked and headed out to explore the town, immediately bumping into a couple of drunk locals called Tony and Cristian. I joined them in a tuk tuk for a tour of Para while Deryn browsed the local stores. We ended up going to Christian’s home and meeting more of his family before returning to find Dits eating lunch in a local cafe. The lads joined us for a few bevvies after which Deryn and I ‘escaped to phone Courtney’ as the lads were getting a bit rowdy. We said we would call them later which we never did. We grabbed some booze on the way home and spent the rest of the evening playing cards.
The next morning we decided to hire some bikes and ride up to have a look at a couple of the miradors and the cemetery in Solola. I had a suspicion it would be a in big climb but I couldn’t get any sense out of the lady we were renting the bikes off, so off we went. We knew we were in trouble when 500m into the ride the road just went up and up and up. We tried cycling for a while but eventually had to get off and walk. Thankfully a truck stopped and asked if we would like a lift. So we chucked our bikes in the back (onto a pile of gravel) and joined 2 other cyclist in the back. The climb was horrendous – we would never have done it! The truck had to stop half way up to refill with water before continuing the journey. It took a good 20 minutes to get to Solola – we both agreed it was an incredibly scenic drive perched high on the back of the truck. We jumped off on the edge of the town and fought traffic into the town square.
We locked our bikes at a local museum and headed in to explore it. Pretty dull except for having to climb 3 flights of very steep stairs to the top floor where the working tower clock was on display although it gave no idea how it worked. The views from the windows were great. We then wondered around the town market and Deryn very nearly bough an indigenous shirt before I talked her out of it. I grabbed a fried chicken feed from Guatemala’s version of KFC – Pollo Compero. It was as awful as KFC, to the benefit of a local dog in the town square. On that point, we have certainly noticed that the dogs are become more mangy the further north we go. Colombia was an aberration with their love of Chihuahuas, everywhere else the dogs are much larger.
The local cemetery was next on the list – while the colours and crypts were cool, it was a but run down and actually looked a lot better from afar than up close. Still we were really glad we had made the trip because the indigenous Mayan culture was alive and flourishing in the town. The clothes worn by both the males and females were incredibly colourful, with unusually the men out blinging the women for a change.
The ride down was a blast, easily reaching speeds of 60kmh. We could have gone a lot faster but didn’t want to risk it with some of the overtaking we had seen on the way up. I measured the ride on Strava – 8km with over 600m of vertical decline. We thought about having lunch at a luxury hotel with access to the lake but decided it just wasn’t that nice a day. So we returned back to out hotel for a kip, followed by a soak in the hot springs and some exercise. We headed into the town for an expensive dinner that looked nothing like the photos on the billboard outside!
The following day was spent relaxing ahead of our weekend with Clayton and Emma in Antigua.
Our accomodation – La Villa Atitlan– was lovely. 2 bedrooms, a pool and lawns leading to the edge of the lake. A perfect spot to chill for a few days and rest our weary legs. First stop was the laundry and then a supermarket to stock up on brekkie and booze. The nearest supermarket was a bit of hike up the hill – not ideal after walking 47kms – but we got to explore the village of San Pedro. As soon as we arrived it started bucketing down (you can set your clock to the timing of it every day) so we huddled under a canopy of a street stall and had the best fresh tacos ever. A$6 for 3 each. I then grabbed some hot chips – she held up fingers saying they were 2, 3 or 5. I thought she meant 20Q etc. No, she meant 2Q – 40c. That night we enjoyed the luxury of going to bed early tucked between nice clean sheets with it bucketing down outside.
The next day we did very little. I caught up with the blog while Deryn explored the town visiting the local market and wandering around the many little laneways. We were both still tired from the trek so enjoyed just lazing around on the hammock and outdoor chairs with the odd dip in the lake. We tried Jamie’s recommended falafel restaurant – Ha Falafel– and were not disappointed – fabulous. Deryn booked in a horse ride for the next day – 80Q ($16) for a 2 hour ride.
The horses and our guide met us a 100m from out villa and we proceeded to ride through the town. It was brilliant – dodging signs, tuk tuks, people etc. Before long the traffic thinned out and we were in the forest around the lake edge. Pedro our host’s English was very good so we got to hear a bit of history of the place. The water of the lake is rising because of the introduction of Black Bass by PanAm in the 50s – they thought they could sell the fishing to Americans. The introduction damaged the natural ecosystem. The bass ate all the local fish and none of the algae which in turn meant the algae bloomed. The algae plugged the vents at the bottom of the lake which helped drain it. Now the water is rising. Go figure. We headed out for 75m, taking only 45 to return. It was brilliant cantering along the paved roads and then winding our way back through the village. Best $16 we had ever spent. We stopped at Ha Falafel for another falafel on our way back to our villa. Spent the rest of the afternoon chilling before heading out around 4 to the hot springs on the other side of town. We were told upon arrival that they needed 30 minutes to heat the water up (not geothermal then) so we headed to a local bar for a quick couple of bevvies and a game of cards. Upon return the water was ready and we got to spend a lovely hour chilling in the hot pool, punctuated by a quick dip in the cold pool . Bliss.
We grabbed a boat the next morning to take us across the lake to San Marcos. It was sad leaving San Pedro, we really enjoyed the back packer vibe of the place. We waited at a local cafe to be picked up and taken to our new home as it was a wee way out of the village. San Marcos is known as the hippy haven on lake Atitlan and we could certainly see why. There were quite a few older, bedraggled and guant westerners around the place – maybe they looked worse before they arrived?? The village was cute. Eventually our host arrived to take us in a tuk tuk to our accommodation – about a 1km out of town. Baraka Atitlan was perched on the side of the cliff with stunning views of the 3 Lake Atitlan volcanoes – Atitlan, Pedro and Toliman. There were steep steps down to a small wharf to jump off into the lake. Magic.
After relaxing and taking in the serenity we headed back into town to grab some food at a Restaurant Fe – pizza and salad. We bumped into both Oded and his girlfriend as well as Teal and Brook walking past the restaurant. Deryn headed home while I travelled for an hour in a tuk tuk to meet a local person. 200Q tuktuk ride. I think I was ripped off but in the context of the bigger picture, not too bad. We did however have a fun night playing cards, boozing and interspersed with some vigorous debates. The next morning was spent enjoying the tranquility and view of our accommodation. Apart from the 2 climbs down the steps for swims and having to move from the upstairs apartment to the downstairs one on account of us being put in the wrong one, we did little activity. The downstairs apartment was still really nice but did not have the deckspace and as much sunlight. Best view from a toilet ever though. Around 4 we headed to Cerro Tzankujil (Nature Reserve) for the well know jump off the platform into the sea. It was 20Q entry fee and then we followed the path along the cliff face until we came across the platform. It was probably about a 10m jump, so not easy. I did a couple of jumps, including a back flip and even Deryn after some deliberation plucked up the courage to jump but landed slightly off so had a bit of a sore bum. We bumped into a couple of Kiwis from the Naki which was nice. I jumped again to encourage a small kid to do it – which he did. Brave wee fella. We made it home just before the heavens opened.
The next morning we grabbed a boat to take us to the town of Santa Cruz – known as the vertical town. The boat trip there was lovely – stopping at smaller towns and wharfs on the way and marvelling at some of the houses built on the edge of lake. Expats or locally owned we wonder? The climb from the wharf at Santa Cruz to the town itself was over 200 metres. There was music blaring from the top of the town – purpose unknown but certainly the speaker system was impressive. The actual town itself was a lot more indigenous than Pedro or Marcos. It was fun winding our way through the little alleyways and streets avoiding the copious amounts of dog poop. We found a tienda selling locally manufactured goods so stocked up on a few local wares.
On the return journey on the boat we bumped into some Aussies from Perth although one of them was now living in Mairangi Bay in Auckland. Small world indeed. We stopped at Restaurant Fe again for the same pizza and salad. The owner recognised us from earlier and returned Deryn’s water bottle which she thought she had lost. We returned home for a kip, followed by our now regular daily exercise routines then it was into the cards and booze before our favourite home made meal of taco shells, tomato, onion, cheese, avocado, jalapeños and spicy sauce. Yum!! It was a reasonably early bedtime to start watching the next series of Mindhunter.
We had 1.50pm flight to Guatemala City so it was a leisurely start to the day. It was another stress free flight with minimal effort. I was a bit nervous about flying Volaris Airlines, Mexico’s biggest budget airline, but it was fine – I guess people with something to moan about tend to post. We grabbed a 6 Gig Guatemalan Tigo SIM card for $50 and was at our B&B Oh Espana within 20 minutes. It was located in a Johannesburg like restricted gated residential zone where you had to enter through a boom gate. The B&B was lovely with the owner going out of her way to help us. Suddenly I was excited about traveling again.
A few days earlier in Costa Rica I had started to feel like I was getting over all the traveling. After 135 days on the road I was finding it a bit of a chore and wasn’t getting excited about the journey ahead. After a bit of a discussion Dits suggested we slow our travels down – spend a min of 3 nights in desired locations and not head up through Belize to give us more time in Guatemala. A great idea. I am writing this a week later in San Pedro on Lake Atitlan in our lovely AirB&B, its a sunny day and the views across the lake are stunning, set off nicely by some lovey tunes that Jake Casella has loaded on Spotify for me. I am just loving being on the road again and really excited about the travels ahead. Guatemala really is special. Anyway, back to the journey to here.
We asked our hostess to recommend a dinner spot. She recommended Ciudad Cyala. We had to wait for the traffic to ease before grabbing a 40 min Uber ride to what turned out to be an upmarket shopping/dining area. We felt like we were back in Costa Rica!! We grabbed an expensive, but good, Mexican meal before heading home. It was an early(ish) start the next day so we could get a 10.30am bus to Quetzaltenango, more commonly referred to as Xela (pronounced Shay-la). We got to the bus station around 9.15 and after a slight language battle managed to booked out tickets. We had an hour to kill so headed off for a wander. We found a farmacia so grabbed some sleeping pills and then headed into McDonalds for some coffee. Even though we had days of breakfast at our B&B, I could not help myself and grabbed an egg McMuffin and hash brown.
After a 3 hour pleasant bus journey we arrived in Xela and grabbed a taxi to our hotel Lar Antiqua Hotel. The location was great but the hotel appeared as if it was in the middle of a renovation. We chose a room on the third floor for the view which meant plenty of stairs – get us in shape for our next trek! We headed out to explore Zona 1 of Xela and, as Deryn described it, “felt like we were back home”. It was so nice being in a town that oozed indigenous culture. We walked to the Quetzaltrekkers office to pay for our trek, Xela to Lake Atitlan Their office was in a run down hostel full of animals but the people were lovely. Quetzaltrekkers support a charity that educates village, and sometimes homeless, children – I think they said about 170. It was A$300 total for a 3 day / 2 night trek. The weather was a bit miserable so we grabbed a lovely Indian at Sabor de la India and headed back to the hotel to watch a movie.
Deryn’s research found us a decent place for breakfast called Mandarina. Turns out its run by a Melbourne lass called Alice who has been living in Xela for nearly 5 years. The restaurant helped fund her charity called The Dox Project which took stray dogs off the street, nourished them, neutered them and then found them a home. The place was full of dogs (clean and nourished) but we had a genuine Aussie breakfast including 2 fantastic lattes! A seed has been planted in Deryn where she is going to come back for 3 or 4 weeks, learn Spanish and volunteer with the charity.
After breakfast we grabbed a local chicken bus to Zunil village (5 Quetzel each – $A1) and then a tiny car (30Q) up the hill to Las Fuentes Georginas – hot springs. The road was steep and windy – I was glad we did not get a tuktuk up although Dits was adamant our car was a tuktuk in disguise – it also got very foggy near the top. It was 60Q for each of us to get into the baths plus another 15Q for a locker key – not a cheap outing. However the baths were lovely, especially when the place was shrouded in thick fog. We managed to hitch a ride in a tuktuk back down – there was 6 of us crammed into it – and got dropped off in a different spot to grab a bus back to Xela. We should have realised that the bus would be going to a different part of Xela so after a few conversations with the bus driver, they dropped us off at a petro station and then flagged down another chicken bus which took us into Zone 1. It was an unintended and not particularly interesting tour of Xela.
We grabbed a tapas meal before heading back to the Quetzaltrekkers office for our 6 pm briefing. We met our guides – Will and Jamie, both Australian. Will was from Melbourne and Jamie from Cronulla. There were 6 other trekkers – Blake and Teal from Portland Oregon, Riley and Ellen from Vancouver, Oded from Israel and Katrin from Germany. At the briefing we found out we had to carry all the food and were allocated our share. We also grabbed our sleeping bags and mats. Packing was going to be a real problem so we decided to take my large backpack and Deryn’s smaller one. Even then it was tight. We had to be back at the office by 6am the next morning so it was back to our hotel to sort out the bags, grab some booze (it is so cheap – $6 for a 375m of 5 year old rum and the same for a bottle of red) and try get some sleep. Neither of us slept well – I was awake most of the night, not helped by following the second Bledisloe on the NZ Herald web site. Glad to see normality restored on that front.
It was a bit of an effort hiking through Xela at 6am with all our bags but we got there. Breakfast was great which helped offset the annoyance of being told that we had even more food to carry. The weight of my bag was getting ridiculous. Around 7am we left and walked across town to grab a chicken bus from the Lo Rotunda bus stop. It was then a 25min ride to the start of our trek at Xecam. We immediately started climbing out of the Xela valley and for the next 2 hours it was basically up. Deryn and I both struggled, partly due to the weight of our bags but also because of the poor night’s sleep. We reached the highest point Alaska (3069m) at 10.30 and then spent the next couple of hours in a slow descent through the beautiful lush cloud forest. We stopped in a clearing for lunch – thick crunchy taco shells, fresh tomatoes, guacamole, peppers, spices, beans and lovely sauces. Delicious. The speed of the group was quite fast paced so we reached our first day destination, the village of Antigua Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan by 3.15pm.
The last hour or so was really tough so Deryn and I were pleased to collapse onto our straw mats, on concrete, in the village hall. After a coffee we headed to the wonderful session in the village temescal– basically a sweat bath/sauna that is the earliest of its kind in the world. It was housed in a tiny shed, inside were hot coals, a heated urn of hot water, a bucket of cold water and a bucket to mix the hot and cold water. You had to duck down to enter the temescal, quickly close the wooden door and once inside remove your clothes in a near pitch black environment. It was also very smoky. You mixed the waters, washed and then poured it over yourself. It was magic. Deryn lasted 13 minutes, I did 15. All the aches and pains of the trek vanished. We walked 16km and climbed 911m over 7 hours. Throughout the afternoon it was fascinating watching the clouds rolling into the village. By 6pm it was completely engulfed in cloud which gave it a very eerie feel. We were asleep by 745 after a fantastic meal of pasta and lunch leftovers.
Sleep was OK – my pillow was the sleeping bag cover stuffed with clothes and the ground was damn hard – but we were that exhausted that nothing would keep us awake for too long. We were awoken by Will at 6.15 am to the sound to cheesy classic greatest hits before waking across to breakfast at a local comedor (restaurant). The coffee, beans, rice, and veggies were really good. We were on the road by 8 for a gentle walk through the village before reaching Record Hill just before 10am. It’s called Record Hill because its basically a time trial to see how quickly you can climb the 600m (200m height) distance. The quickest time (a local – we did not not know whether he was carrying any gear) was below 7 minutes. Anyone getting sub 10 minutes was treated to a free ice cream at the upcoming “ice cream village.“ Will had seen a guest do it in 9.45 but anything below 15 mins was regarded as impressive. I came a respectable second in a time of 13.40 behind Blake who did an impressive 11.25. Dits did 16. It was a brutal climb but at least it made a challenging hill a bit of an adventure. At the top our guide Jamie gave us an impressive and fascinating summary of Guatemalan history and politics while we all got our breath back. We kept on gradually climbing until we reached Ice Cream Village (Tzucubal) for a well earned ice cream (no freebies).
We noticed most houses were not quite finished – turns out it’s how to avoid paying tax. You need to pay when the house is finished. It started raining soon after leaving the village so bag covers and raincoats were rapidly engaged. Next on the route was the “Corn field of Death” so named because it was a slippery downhill followed by a steep uphill. We were planning on having some lunch but decided to keep moving in the hope the rain eased at a suitable location. After a couple of river crossings the rain stopped so we found a nice spot by the river for lunch. The rain started up soon after lunch, but we weren’t too concerned as our home for the night, Don Pedro’s casa allegedly had hot showers and a fire to dry our clothes. We arrived at Xiprian at 3.15 and Don Pedro’s soon after. Today we walked 17.6km, climbed 833m over 7.35 hours.
The fire was certainly welcome but unfortunately the shower was freezing. Not to worry, it was still nice to wash off the mud and sit in front of the fire. Will had phoned ahead and ordered us either strawberry or pineapple drinks which went down very well with my rum. The rest of the group headed to the local shop to grab beers (no wine) while Dits and I got stuck into our carried booze. Deryn ended up sharing a lot of her much appreciated wine with those in the group that missed out on buying some. Don Pedro’s dinner hit the spot and once again everyone was in bed by 830. The roosters crowing, dogs barking all night and our impending 3.15 am wake up made sleep difficult – I have no idea why the Latino roosters find it so difficult to crow at dawn??’!!
It rained hard during the night so for a while the 3.15am awakening looked less likely. But no, 3.15am and Will was in there rousing the troops. Normal routine – toilet, teeth and pack up, ahead of climbing to the mirador for breakfast and hopefully some volcanic eruptions. We had a 45 minute walk up to the mirador, mostly along a well lit the road. The last 300m was through thick woods, before arriving at a paddock with apparently great views of Lake Atitlan. It was pitch black with loads of cloud when we arrived so we all grabbed our sleeping mats and lay on the grass waiting for dawn or an eruption. Unfortunately the clouds remained and the rain got us first – you could hear it working it’s way through the forest. Thankfully we had a small covered area which we all cuddled under for breakfast. When the sun rose and the clouds dispersed the view was stunning- we could see most of the lake, the villages of San Pedro, San Juan and San Marcos to name a few. Blake took the chance to fly his drone for some photos.
A couple of armed security guards appeared. They had in fact been there the whole time keep an eye on us and escort us down to the village of San Juan, 90 minutes away. They are hired by Quetzaltrekkers for every trek as it could be a bit tempting for some to know that there were, pre dawn, a dozen or so tourists every Monday and Friday huddling in the bush 3km out of San Pedro. Fair call I thought. The walk down was quite difficult as it was steep, but the views were amazing. We arrived at a little look out just above San Juan just before 10 and so had to kill an hour before the coffee cafe opened in the town. We lulled around the mirador before slowly strolling into town and the El Fondeadero cafe and coffee store.The coffee was great, as was the carrot cake and pineapple. A short walk today of 6.4km, climbed 142m over 5 hours.
Afterwards we all piled into a Ute for the journey over the hill to San Perdo and lunch at a local cafe. The restaurant was perched 8 or so metres above the lake with a gate you opened to then jump into the lake. I loved it and had to show the crowd my full repertoire. Lunch was a chicken sandwich for me and fish for Dits with a side of guacamole, rice, vegetables and chips. Once the rums came out it was bliss. Will took me on a wee tour of the town before we all said our sad goodbyes. It was so nice spending some quality time with a lovely, diverse bunch of people. I often saw Deryn chuckling away to herself as i regale these poor captives with my enthralling stories. Thanks Quetzaltrekkers! We grabbed a tuktuk for the 120m trip to our lakeside, 2 bedroom lake side apartment. Luxury!!
While writing this I heard another very loud cracker (I assume) explode, a lot closer than normal. We have been hearing them a lot in Central America but today we must have heard 9mor 10. However the latest few are really close. We must find out what they are about.
And to finish with some dogs. This pack suddenly appeared in Xela, in a real hurry to get somewhere.
We headed off to Manuel Antonia park. The drive was just over an hour along a narrow coastal road. The traffic wasn’t as bad as previous days so it was a pleasant hour. We arrived at our accommodation – Manual Antonio Park House– in a stretch of coast that was packed with accommodation. The house used to be a restaurant but was turned into a guest house. It was run by a Dutch local called Michael who did a great job of making the place feel like a family home. It had a huge pool and was completely surrounded by national park – so we got to see monkeys and Agouti (guinea pig) while chilling around the pool or in the very comfortable lounge. We went for a walk to explore the area and I dropped off a load of washing at a local hotel that did laundry – I was told it was 1800 colones a kg which was reasonable so I was a bit pissed off when they said they had a minimum charge of 5000 colones (A$15) for my 1kg.
Michael offered to cook us dinner – he used to own his own restaurant in the area. I had the veggie lasagna and Deryn had the chicken pasta. Delicious. Micahel was amazed I could manage seconds!
We were planning on getting to Manual Antonio National Park ahead of opening at 7am (it’s Costa Rica’s Mostar popular national park) but Michael said that is the busiest time, its best to turn up around 10 when the early arrivers start leaving. So we grabbed a local bus at around 9.45 (340 colones each/$1.20) and was in the park by 10.30. It cost $16 each. Most of the early path were wheelchair accessible so it was easy walking. It wasn’t too busy but it certainly was hot so at the earliest opportunity we headed into the sea. The landscape was stunning, tropical rainforest surrounded by stunning beaches on both sides. There were plenty of animals (monkeys and iguanas) as well as birds and butterflies. We spent a fair bit of time at Playitas Beach which was at the northern tip of the peninsula.
We spent about 3 hours in the park and walked over 8kms so were happy to head home to the pool and get out of the heat. We spent a pleasant afternoon chilling by the pool reading. We were treated to another of Michael’s meals for dinner – he gave me a massive plate of pasta and again was astounded that I finished it. Having the munchies certainly helped.
We had a leisurely start to the day as our next stop was the nicely named Cool Vibes Beach Hotelon the reasonably well know surf beach of Dominical. The drive was very easy and within the hour we were checked in to a well run and busy Cool Vibes hostel. The pool was tiny but that was fine as it was only 100m from the beach. The surf was obviously good as the place was packed with surfy types and there must have been 20 surfboards on the rack outside our room.
We headed down to the beach for a swim and to explore the area. The beach was pebbly with dark sand but pretty impressive. The surf was very choppy but the water temperature was perfect. We walked down the river at the end of the beach and had some fun diving into it and floating back towards the ocean. The town itself was tiny with half a dozen shops and the same number of restaurants. We grabbed a drink at Coca before heading home for another swim. It started absolutely bucketing down so we headed indoors for several hours to wait the calm. It never came so we drove back into town for dinner and an early bed.
The next morning we drove the 3 kms down the road to Hacienda Baru, a private natural park. Another $15 and we were enjoying the tropical rainforest once again. It was almost deserted which was a treat after Manual Antonio. We saw the usual monkeys, Iguanas and birds but not anything new which was a tad disappointing. After really enjoying the drinks yesterday, we headed back to Coca for lunch. Very good. The afternoon was spent chilling again before I cooked our leftover spaghetti and vegetables for a tasty wee dinner. That followed by another shite Netflix movie – our hit ratio has been sub 30% on the tour to date. Terrible recommendations from the online critics.
Deryn spent most of the following morning trying to sort out her phone. We’re not quite sure where it is – either at the DHL office or customs. We’re going to start with the DHL office and work our way from there. We were going to drive back to San Jose via route 2 (very mountainous) but decided with all the rain around visibility could be a problem. Before heading away we went for our last swim in the ocean for a while. It was absolutely teaming down which made it even more special.
We stopped at Ridiculous (priced) Burgers again for another overpriced burger as we passed through Jaco. After that the traffic wasn’t too bad until we got close to the airport and the DHL office. Initial discussions were promising but soon turned to dust and it now looks like Deryn’s phone is a lost phone. Incompetence. The drive to our hostel Finca Escalante– was slow but it was peak hour.
The hostel was lovely. It used to be a wealthy family home and was converted to a hostel a few years back. It was in the heart of the gastrointestinal area of San José so their were plenty of decent restaurants in the area. We met a friendly local so spent the evening playing cards and finishing off our alcohol. The next day was very slow but we did venture our for a walk for lunch before retreating back to the hostel for movies and sleep. We headed out for a meal – best meal on tour so far. I had sweet potatoes gnocchi and Deryn had tuna.
Our flight was at 1.50 so it was a leisurely start to the day before heading off to the airport at 10.
Our first night’s sleep in Costa Rica was punctuated by fireworks going off at 10pm (OK) and then 4am and 530am (Not OK). The only reason given by Charles is that there is a firework factory nearby – not sure of that marketing strategy.
After an amazing breakfast – fruit, eggs and potatoes we started out for our 3 hour drive to Fortuna. The roads were really busy because it was the Black Madonna public holiday. The roads reminded us of NZ – hilly and windy. And slow. But it was lovely countryside to be driving through although it got a bit dodgy when we hit a really foggy patch at the highest part of the journey. We stopped for a coffee in a little town on the way and to get a break from the really slow traffic. We finally arrived in La Fortuna about 1.30pm and spent a fair bit of time trying to find our backpackers – Hostel Packpackers La Fortuna– basically because they have 3 hostels in the town. The hostel was pretty cool, you are given a wristband which then gives you access to the facilities at all the hostels which include a pool and a hot pool. We unpacked and them grabbed a feed at the bar across the road. I ordered a local beer thinking it would be cheaper – no luck, $9 for a pint. Amazing how expensive everything is – most people coming to Costa Rica are from the US, Canada and Europe. They usually come for 2 weeks and pre-book everything so are not really noticing the pricing. We on the other hand have been backpacking through cheap counties and have got used to those prices. We decided after that to cook more of our own food while here in Costa Rica.
We booked our canyoning for the next day – US$80 each. On our way to dinner we met a local with whom we had a bit of fun with. A few games of cards and some rum/wine before we headed to the pool table to teach the other travellers ‘NZ rules’ at the pool table. We were tucked up in our beds by midnight ready for our early start. We were picked up by Pure Trek Canyoning at 7.30 – and they arrived on the second. Deryn assumed Costa Rica would be similar to our Colombian experience – we now know different! It was a short drive to the start where we changed into our wet weather gear and given a helmet and a heavy duty set of gloves. Our adventure included 4 rappels (3 waterfalls and 1 rock wall), monkey drop and a rock climb. The first rappel was over 50 metres so it was in at the deep end! Being dropped into a pond and rappelling through waterfalls was pretty amazing but there wasn’t really the fear factor Deryn and I were expecting. They wanted US$30 for the photos they took, but the twotightnomads just couldn’t spend the money. The bus took us back to their head office for a traditional Loi local meal – beans, rice, salad and chicken, topped off by this incredible sauce called Lazana Salsa.
After that excitement we headed back to our backpackers for an afternoon chilling around the pool before driving 5km north of the town to some hot baths. It was 5000 colons/US$10 to enter but the facilities were pretty good. Including a couple of water slides that Deryn and I had a go on. There was only 1 really hot pool, the others ranging from tepid to cold. Still it was a couple of pleasant hours – would have been amazing if Arenal volcano has popped through the clouds for a bit longer.
We headed out for an early meal before getting back into the routine of a few games of cards and the rum/wine. We popped out and saw our new local friend after a couple of hours but were in bed by 10 as we planned a hike the next morning. We picked the Arenal 1968 walk (that was when it last had a significant eruption – its been erupting regularly every few years since – nothing as major though). It was a 35 min drive from La Fortuna, and then US$16 each for the hike! We got there at 9 to it wasn’t too busy. It was a 5.1km walk around a lake and then up to a lookout where you had a great view of Arenal Volcano (assuming there is no cloud). We saw a few birds, but the highlight were these inedible ant trains carrying chopped off leaves as fuel for the fungi in their nexts. Amazing. The walk was OK but sorry to sound like a stuck record, but not worth the US$16 each. The walk was basically natural with very little human involvement – be good to know what they do with the money?
On the way back we stopped at the Scratch River for its famous free hot water pools. It was really busy so you had to use some local parking lads who charged you a fee for their advice and to clean the river. When asked how much he said between 3000 and 5000 colons (US$6-10). I gave him 1400. You had to walk under an over bridge to get the pools but it was definitely worth it. It was busy – the damn Black Madonna – but still easy to find your own spot in the river. We hung there for 30 minutes to so before heading back to our backpackers. We chilled for a few hours before heading out for dinner – Dits did a scout run returning empty handed saying she would rather buy some pasta in the supermarket and cook it ourselves. Which is what’s we did and it was really good!! Then it was back to cards and rum/wine. I ran out of rum around 10pm so we headed out to buy some more and had a bit of wonder around town. There were quite a few weirdo’s out and about, including a very pissed local who enjoyed a swig out of my bottle of rum. We got quite a few offers of cheap cocaine from various drunk locals. Thanks, but no thanks.
It was a bit of a slow start the next morning but we managed to get away just before our 11am checkout time for our 2 hour drive to Monteverde. Amazingly the town was 26km as the crow flies but over 110 km by road. It was a lovely drive around the western bank of Lake Arenal and then into the hills of The Children’s Eternal Rain Forest. The last 45 minutes was on dirt roads which made for slow going. Monteverde on first impressions was a lot more laid back than La Fortuna. Our hostel, Cabinas El Puebla, was near the centre of town, and given the prices we had been paying in Costa Rica, incredibly cheap at $26 per night. We had our standard Costs Rican lunch of cheese and salad sandwiches in the hostels cute kitchen and then chilled for a few hours. Deryn booked us a zip lining session the next morning with Extremo Canopy after which we headed out for a late meal (for us) at 7pm. The place was packed with northern hemisphere tourists so it took 4 goes before we could find a place we could eat.
It was a 20 minute drive to Extremo. We got there at 10.55 to be greeted by 20 people standing in the queue to check in and another 10 or so already checked in. We had read about the crowds but hoped for better. We finally got checked in, got our harnesses on and the went for our briefing. One for the English and the other Spanish. There was about 20 in each group. The Spanish finished first but waited for the English group to go first – tourists are more likely to complain on social media? I made sure I got to the front of the queue so for all 12 zip lines it was Deryn and I first and second! It was a real blast. 4 of the lines were over 400m, one superman line was 750 (you lie down with your feet in a harness for the superman zip). A couple of lines Deryn and I went together. We finished with a Tarzan swing where you are 100ft up a platform and drop into a huge swing. A real adrenalin buzz and not too bad value at $50. We met a young English couple – Jack and Yasmin – who had a phone and took some photos of Deryn and I. In return we dropped them off back at the village so they didn’t have to wait 45min for the tour bus. Before we left a couple of Scarlet Macaws took a liking to Jack and chased him around the Extremo office. Hilarious.
We spent the afternoon investigating some free walks in the area but nothing was that inspiring so decided to flag it. I headed up the the very popular Taco Taco Taqueriato grab an outdoor table about 5.30 to wait for Dits while she did her daily yoga. Tried a few local beers and then a spicy margarita – nearly blew my head off. The meal was ok – not sure why the place was so popular? We managed to get away reasonably early but had to detour to a local cafe to access wifi so we could cancel our booking in Playa Hermosa as it was the wrong Playa Hermosa nearly 300km from where we wanted to go. We found a place in Jaco and headed off.
The drive was pleasant – again the roads reminded us of the back roads in NZ. We stopped briefly on Crocodile Bridge over the Tarcoles River to marvel at the many very large crocodiles cruising in the muddy waters below. We arrived at our Beach Break Resortin Jaco just after midday. The place was very ‘resorty’ but perfect to chill for a day before we headed up to Manuel Antonia National Park. We headed into town for dinner at the famous Ridiculous Burgers before heading home for a Netflix movie.
The next morning it was a buffet breakfast with the American tour groups before Deryn headed off for the oldest surf group lesson ever. I finished “The Power Of The Dog” (incredible read) and chilled by the pool after a quick dip in the very warm sea.
It was a lovely night sleep in clean sheets and an air conditioned room – for me, not so much for Dits who gets cold with the air con on 24 degs! We ended up back at Nomada Eatery for breakfast – the food really was good – after putting our clothes in a washer at a nearby laundromat. I couldn’t believe they didn’t do a drop off so I had to dash back after 30 minutes to put the clothes in the dryer.
We then headed to the Canal Interoceanico de Panama in the old city to see the history of the Panama Canal. It was $10 each to get in but well worth it. They had a big globe which showed the movements of the continents from 380m years ago to today. Incredible. I had no idea how much the continents had moved and that the creation of the Central American Isthmus had such an impact on global weather and ocean currents. The building of the canal was a phenomenal achievement, but at a huge cost. The French first built the railway line at a cost of 12000 lives and then started on the canal. Over 20000 died before they gave up and went home – mostly of yellow fever and malaria. The Americans took over and first thing they did was improve sanitation and eradicate yellow fever. They lost few thousand lives but far less. They also used more dynamite than they had used cumulatively in their history. It was fascinating. I got a bit bored with the politics so moved quickly and in the process lost Dits. Thankfully I found her 20 minutes later wondering around the square outside. We had a wander around the old town before heading back to the sanctuary of our air conditioned room. The amount of upgrading of buildings in the old town is incredible – a function of the world heritage listing. The place is going to look incredible in 5 or so years. I spent the afternoon writing the blog and updating our expenses (South America is not that cheap!) while Deryn started planning Costa Rica.
We had an early dinner at a local bar and the headed back to the sanctuary for another average Netflix movie. We tried to sleep without the air conditioning but a rave next door meant we could not open the window. Thankfully the rave finished at 2am so we got some sleep.
We had our now favourite homemade breakfast of muesli, banana and yoghurt before grabbing an Uber to visit the Panama Canal proper. We timed it perfectly to watch a boat work it’s way through the Miraflores Locks. It was $20 entry which included entry into the museum. The whole process of the boat moving through the two locks was commentated on by a guide which made it really interesting. It took the boat 45 mins to work its way through the 2 western locks (there is a eastern lock and a western lock – the eastern one was closed due to maintenance) – it costs between $80k and $120k depending on their tonnage. The museum again was well worth a visit. We then grabbed an Uber (Uber’s are a must in Panama City as they are cheap and the cars are modern – unlike the yellow cabs) to a local Mall to grab a few supplies and for me to get a burger! The mall has every top end shop you could imagine – I grabbed some shorts and new jandals.
We were going to climb a local hill for the view but they close it at 5 so we had to make do walking into the new city along the ocean. It was a lovely walk with plenty of sights. We grabbed dinner at an authentic little Indian restaurant owned by a former bollywood star. We over ordered on the starters – who doesn’t over order Indian? We walked a bit of the way home before jumping in a dodgy yellow cab.
We had planned to climb the hill the next morning but on reflection decided to enjoy our last morning of the sanctuary before heading to the airport at 11am for our flight to San Jose. We grabbed another Uber to the airport (a long way out of town). Checking in to our Avianca flight was a breeze and so we got to spend an hour in their lounge. The flight to Costa Rica was 90 minutes, customs was a coddle and within 20 mins we grabbed our Avis guy to go pick up our car. Deryn had spent hours trying to sort out the car, insurance and not paying for an extra driver – mostly to no avail as the rentalcars.com terms were not accepted by Avis. Still, we still got a very cheap (works out $65 pd) new Nissan SUV. We were on the road by 3.30 with our first stop a local mall to try get some money (no luck) and a SIM card (sorted but no idea how to install). The traffic was a mare until we got north of the toll booths on the motorway, after which it was just busy.
It took us 75 min to reach our guesthouse in Greacia – La Terraza Guest House. It was run by an American from Washington called Charles. It was really nice with large rooms with balcony views of the lush bush below. We had some burgers delivered and went to bed with the balcony doors wide open (although with the insect screen closed) to appreciate the sounds of nature outside. A lovely welcome to Costa Rica.
And now to finish with a beautiful tabby we bumped into on our walk into the city.
We were up reasonably early as we needed to be at the wharf by 8 for the start of our San Blas adventure. I avoided any food deciding to try starve this damn tummy bug. We had to waterproof our bags – with our big bags it required putting all our clothes in a plastic bag inside the bag and then putting the bag inside another plastic bag. Double bagged so to speak. Our day bags then had to be waterproofed as well. What have we got ourselves into?
Our big bags went in one boat and the 17 of us plus the crew of 4 went in another boat with our day packs. The boat was of reasonable size with 2 70 HP engines. The first part of the journey involved a 30 minute bolt to Armila in Panama to get our passports stamped and all our bags sniffed by a somewhat mangy old sniffer dog. It kept on chewing on bags simply out of hunger as it turned out. We were told is could take 4-6 hours so we were all relieved it only took 3 as the place wasn’t that pleasant.
It was back to the boat for around 75 minutes of bouncing around and stopping every 20 minutes or so to ‘sort the engines’ before arriving at the island of Atitub – a tiny little island. Here we cooled off, had lunch snorkeled and chilled out. After a few hours we then jumped in the local ‘yala’ and paddled over to the bigger island of Caledonia and our first taste of Kuna life. The yalas were quite hard going with steering proving a real challenge for dits and I. There were 900 inhabitants on the island of which 450 were kids. Their numbers were incredible – the place felt like a child care centre. They absolutely loved interacting with us and probably entertained us more than we them. The island itself was very basic with the highest point barely a meter above the sea – reminded me of Funafuti in Tuvalu. The island tour ended with a dance performed by some of the adults – they loved performing as it is a big part of their culture with competitions and performances on any festive occasion. We then had to play a game of rabbit goose with the kids. Loads of fun. Dinner was delicious and then Edi (a Ecuadorian volunteering with SBA) got out his guitar and sang some Oasis, REM and even his own songs. Very impressive. The youngsters in the group (mostly everyone bar Dits and I) kicked on until the midnight curfew. It sounded very wild.
We got hit by a hell of a storm around 2 am. I saw it coming so managed to close our door and window shutter before it hit. The lightning and thunder were incredible as was the rain. Most of our crew got wet one way or another so Dits and I were lucky that we didn’t. Breakfast was 7am to enable us to get most of the travelling done before the wind gets up in the afternoon. It was meant to be a 2 hour trip but turned into 3 with a few stops to sort out the engines. Stopping out at sea was tough for those that suffered from sea sickness. Charlie and Preston both took the opportunity to dive overboard to cool off. We arrived at a lovely little island called Tuplie which had been sent up for our sole use – multiple hammocks and even with a volleyball court setup. Lunch was an amazing selection of salads. I took the opportunity to do a number 2 in the ocean – quite easy as it turned out although I was a bit horrified when our Belgium couple decided to take a swim down current half way through. I let them swim in peace with no ill effect.
After a vigorous game of volleyball with local rules we spent an hour playing a drinking game called Piccolo – fun. The beer chilly bin got emptied very quickly. Around 430 we jumped in the boat for a 10 min ride to our home for the night on the island of Dubbir. Deryn and I managed to grab our own upstairs room with windows on 3 sides – makes for a nice breezy sleep! We had a walk around the island once again marvelling at the number of kids and how they loved interacting with us. We were told that we were not to pick them up as a few years earlier a guest had and broke the kids arm when they dropped him. It was bedlam apparently. Dinner was amazing again after which Preston borrowed Edi’s guitar and also impressed with his playing and voice. Deryn snuck off a bit early while I stayed around drinking Preston’s rum after polishing off my small bottle of 5 year old.
Dits and I slept through most of breakfast so it was only some fruit and cereal. The 75 minute trip the next island was pretty tough with us all getting soaked by the chop from the boat. However it was worth it when we arrived at our own little paradise called Coco Bandera. Everyone was allocated a hammock although again Deryn and I managed to only have to share our space with Tjeerd, our Dutch guide. The island really was paradise. The local Kuna owners cut down some fresh coconuts for us – made a great mix for our rum – and then a tub of lobsters were caught for dinner. We had a bit of a snorkel – it was tough getting out to the deep water because of the sharp coral – and then started drinking about 3.30. Our guides made this incredible punch which you got a glass of, plus some amazing potatoe fries once you said a few words about the trip. Then it was off to dinner to gorge on lobster and hit the rum again. Ailish gave a re-enactment of her Gaelic dancing mishap only to break her toe in the process. It was a late night but loads of fun.
It was a lovely relaxing morning on our little island in paradise. It was with a little sadness we left at 130 for our 90 minute trip to Carti and the end of our adventure. It really has been special. We reached the dock with no hassle but then spent ages trying to figure out who could go in which of the 3 cars to Panama City. The locals were the only ones ‘allowed to work’ so they had to do the logistics. Not a good idea. The Magnolia hostel crew jumped in one car for a cramped 2.5 hour drive. The road for the first 45 was really steep and windy. Our driver was grumpy and a very aggressive driver which made it interesting when we hit the traffic in Panama City.
The Magnolia Hostel was lovely and the hot shower, aircon, soft clean bed and laundry were a treat. We all headed out to a local burger joint for a group dinner and a received a gift of a San Blas Adventures singlet. It was sad saying goodbye to a great bunch of people.
It was a slow start as we had left Deryn’s iPad at the pub last night. The staff at 574 were really helpful with the owner’s dad driving me up to the bar just before opening to help me try track it down. Thankfully it had been found and was safely returned. We grabbed a metro to the northern bus station and for 8000 pesos each we were on our way to Guatape and its famous rock.
It was a pleasant 2 hour bus journey followed by a 5 minute ride in the local tuktuk to our Lake View hostel and a lovely room with a balcony overlooking the lake. We headed into town for some dinner (trout) before retiring to bed for an early night.
We hired a couple of bikes the next morning having decided to bike the 5 or so kms to the El Penon Rock. The rock is basically a bit of granite that has not been worn away – a bit like a mini Uluru. It was first climbed in the 1950s. Steps were built to get to the summit which now has several cafes and viewing platforms. Bike hire was 35000p each for the day. The ride was not too bad – not as hilly as we had feared – until the last km. We had to walk the last 300m because it was too steep to ride. Tickets to climb to the top where 18000p each which is quite ‘steep’ in the local context. It was roughly 750 steps to the top with some lovely views on the way up. Looking down on the circling condors was pretty cool.
The views from the top were spectacular. We both thought the views reminded us of the Bay of Islands with the multitude of watery inlets. Some of the houses looked very impressive. We cycled around the town upon our return. It was beautiful – every house was painted a range of different colours. I wonder what would happen if you dared to paint your house white. We both agreed that Guatape is a lovely little town that we both would have enjoyed spending a bit more time than the day and a bit. Most of the tour guides suggest a day trip from Medellin which does Guatape no justice.
We arranged for a taxi to take us to Medellin – 120,000p (about $55) as buses were a bit of a hassle involving several changes. We arrived nice and early and before long we had landed in Santa Marta – on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia. The increase in temperature was noticeable. We grabbed a local taxi to take us the 30kms us to Minca. We got dropped off in the town square and then jumped on the back of a motorbike to take us to the hostel Finca Bolivar. Thankfully it wasn’t too far because sitting on the back of a motorbike with a heavy backpack on driving on a bumpy dirt road is not easy.
Our hostel was lovely, surrounded by huge trees and plenty of bamboo. Simon, the Swiss owner, talked us through the many activities available in Minca. Waterfalls and walks a plenty. It started to rain as he was wrapping up the intro which was a bit of a bugger as we were hoping to head into town for some food. We waited a couple of hours but no joy so we had no choice but to don our jackets and head into town. We stopped at the first place we found and both ordered garlic prawn pasta for 22000 each. What we got was a little bowl with 6 prawns in garlic oil, 2 crackers and 2 halves of bread. They obviously had no pasta! We will not be returning.
The next morning we had a bit of a wonder around the town and then spent some time chilling around the hostel, including having a swim (more of a dip). We got chased away by the noise of the guy doing the lawn so decided to visit some water holes just a wee walk out of the town. It was lovely. We had an early dinner on the way home and then played some cards and had a few quiets in our hostel – enjoying the fact we were the only ones staying in the hotel. We tried, reasonably well, to keep a lid on it as we had a big walk planned the next day.
We had our breakfast at the hotel with some granola, bananas and yogurt bought at the local dairy supplemented with fresh local mangoes grown at our hostel. Perfect. We headed out at 10 with plenty of water and some sandwiches. It took us over an hour to reach the waterfalls – basically climbing the entire time but at least it was on a dirt road. The waterfalls at Pozo Azul were pretty cool with some nice water holes to swim in. It was reasonably busy but thankfully not as bad as it could have been given the number of full vans that passed us heading down as we walked up. We both agreed that there was no way we could walk the full circuit as the heat and humidity made it really challenging. So we headed back to the hostel and went into town for an early dinner at a local restaurant that made its own pasta – Santa Isabela. Magic.
We grabbed breakfast in town before negotiating for 2 motorbikes to take us to the Mirador at Los Pinos – 30,000p each. We thought it was a lot until we spent at least 20 minutes traveling over incredibly rough roads to reach our destination. We were both glad to get off the bikes and thankful that we didn’t try walk it yesterday. Also being a weekend the number of vans at the waterfalls from yesterday made us gla we did it then – everyone in Santa Marta must head up for a weekend drive. The views across to Santa Marta wasn’t great thanks to the mist/cloud. We then walked down to Casa Elemento with its famous large hammocks. It was 10,000 each to get access to the hammocks but we also got a coffee and a swim thrown in. Amazingly we bumped into a couple of girls from the Lake View Hostel in Guatape. Small world this backpacking fraternity.
Next stop was the Cascada de Marinka, some more waterfalls about halfway back to town. The walk was pleasant enough although after an hour or so we were both thinking ‘motorbike’ but soldiered on. Again they were very pleasant without being spectacular. And thankfully not too busy. We then limped back into town for a well deserved burger at my local favourite The Lazy Cat. 11.7km which took us nearly 3 and half hours. The heat and humidity made it tougher than the numbers. After a well earned kip we headed down the enjoy the famous paella at Casa Antonio. The hostel was lovely, we were very surprised that we were the only guests. The paella was everything we hoped. Another couple of episodes of Stranger Things before trying to get to sleep in our hot and humid room.
I had a tough last night in Minca as I was hit by a nasty tummy bug. Deryn also started to feel a bit dodgy when we woke early for our 630am taxi to Santa Marta airport for our flight to San Andres Island. We arrived at the airport at 715am to find the Viva Air counter not yet open for our 930am flight. More worrying was the fact that we could not find the flight on the departure board. We checked the tickets again – we had booked from Cartegena not Santa Marta!! Luckily the Latam office was open so we managed to get a couple of tickets to San Andres via a 6 hour stop over in Bogoata. Just what the doctor ordered when you’ve got a dodgy stomach. We let Roz know that she would be getting to the apartment before us. We tried to see if we could wrangle a refund from the now open Viva Air office but the girl behind the counter did not speak English so we flagged it.
The time in Bogota airport was tough with no lounge available so it was iPad TV and reading with the odd dash to the loo for both of us. We finally arrived at our apartment – Tamarindo Centro VIP Apartment– in San Andres at around 730pm. 13 hours of fun. Roz was there to meet us outside which was lovely. The apartment was right in the heart of the town at an incredibly busy intersection – the noise and heat were incredible.
We grabbed a pizza and beer at a local pub before hitting the sack. Roz has arranged to go diving the next day while Deryn and I planned to try get over the bug. Roz arrived home around 1pm with a lukewarm response to the diving. She felt snorkelling would be as good. We headed off to see if we could find a boat to take us out to one of fhe islands on one of the next couple of days – to no avail. We did meet a friendly local and Deryn arranged the hire one of the many Suzuki jeeps endemic to the island for the following day. We had a bit of a session that night teaching Roz the finer points of cribbage.
We picked the Jeep up at 10am. 175k pesos for the day. You pay for what you get. It was basically an automatic with 1 forward and 1 reverse gear, had a top speed of 30 miles an hour (sounded like it was going to take off at that point), no review mirrors or seatbelts. However it did the trick and we spent the next 6 hours traversing around the whole island of San Andres. We stopped at La Piscinita down on the west side of the island where for 5000p you could swim with and feed fish, dive off a diving board and also bomb down a water slide. It was fun but a bit busy although the water slide was a blast – Roz must have hit the water doing a 100km/h and was lucky to retain her togs.
We then drove to a beach a couple of kms down the road for some snoozing and sun bathing. Deryn and I were still struggling with our bug so we enjoyed the kip. On the return leg down the east coast we headed inland to La Loma (a waste of time) and then stopped for some more kipping and sunbathing at the famous Rocky Kay – an island that you walk out to for cocktails. We didn’t walk out there instead preferring to hang around the beach enjoying the recliners and shade. It was a bit of a shame that the Colombians love of loud music made sleep a bit of a challenge. We found somewhere nice for dinner (Peru Wok) and enjoyed a lovely seafood meal.
The next morning Roz and Deryn headed off snorkeling while I tried once again to sleep off the bug. They enjoyed the snorkeling – there was only 4 of them and it was only a couple of hours so they didn’t suffer the usual ‘island challenge’ of hanging around for hours waiting. We played a few more hands of cards before sitting out on our deck enjoying a tropical downpour.
Our trip the next morning to Cartagena was uneventful – once again Latam and South American airports being a pleasure. We checked into our lovely hotel – Hotel Casa Lola– very swanky and just outside of the walls of the old city. The air conditioning was the most pleasant part as it was hot and sweaty. Our Kiwi mates from NY, Dave and Jane Fanning arrived 15 minutes after us so we all headed up to the rooftop pool to cool down, downed a few Pisco Sours and have some amazing burgers. The tab of 435k pesos let us know that it wasn’t going to be a cheap weekend. We headed out at dusk to explore the very cool city of Cartagena, first wondering around the old town, before heading to a local restaurant for some amazing food. The girls were all in bed by 11pm but Dave and I kicked on playing cribbage until the early hours.
It was off to the San Felipe de Barajas (Castillo San Felipe Fortress). The fort was built in the 1500s and was meant to repel all invaders trying to get their hands on Cartagena’s slave based riches. It was impressive although again the heat made it a real challenge. Even deep in the bowels of the fort, the heat was oppressive. We stopped for lunch at a local pub and to watch the All Blacks take on Argentina. Deryn, Jane and Roz left early to look around the town and headed home through El Centenario plaza where they got to see monkeys, sloths and iguanas that live in the park. Next was a couple of hours to chilling in our air conditioned rooms. We found a well rated ‘local’ cafe on Trip Advisor. Not sure how it got the rating because while the food was OK it was overpriced and the restaurant was totally lacking atmosphere. We headed back to the hotel and got stuck into our duty free vodka while playing 10&1. It was past midnight while playing Ralph that a hand appeared at a window above us furiously pointing to their watch. We had no idea we were sitting outside a hotel room. So we snuck back to the party room (room 22 – Dits and my room) and continued chatting until past 2am.
It was a slow start the next day with none of us rising much before 10am, in time to get breakfast. With the heat and humidity it was simply a matter of avoiding it during the heat of the day. Jomo did a bit of research and found a decent restaurant in the old town so we headed out around 5.30, stopped at a roof top bar to try grab some Pisco Sours but had to do with majitos as they were on special and they did not serve Piscos. The dinner was really good although we over ordered with a fair bit of seafood casserole remained uneaten. Dave was keen to kick on but he was alone on that front so we were all in bed by 10.
Dave and Jane were on a 1pm flight back to New York so we said our sad farewells to them about 11am. We and Roz then headed into town for some lunch before we again sadly left Roz around 2 lying by the pool (her flight was 730pm) and we grabbed a cab to take us to the bus terminal for our 5 hour bus trip to Monteria. Deryn had been in contact with the bus company so we intended to head to their office but never made it as we were intercepted and convinced to jump into a minivan. It seemed like a good idea as it was cheaper, we could leave sooner and seemed comfortable. After 30 minutes of waiting and a few more passengers joining to van, we were thinking we had made a mistake. We left at 330 (instead of the 4pm planned bus departure). The trip was slow going with loads of road works resulting in periods of waiting for traffic to pass. We were then bundled out of our minivan into another far more crowded van for the last 90 minutes of the journey. We should have taken the bus!!
We had booked into a hotel – Hotel Florida Sinú– close to the bus station in Monteria as we had to grab another van the next day. The hotel looked pretty flash although on closer inspection it was like many of those second tier Chinese hotels. The shower drain did not work and the air conditioning only had one setting – full bore!. However the hotel did have an amazing burger joint across the road which did as good a chicken burger as we have had for a long time. We were woken in the middle of the night by an incredible storm – thunder like we have never heard before. It really did sound like explosions. We were back at the station by 10 the next morning and after an hour of waiting for the right number of passengers we were on our way to Necoclí. It took just over 3 hours. Necocli was a bit of a run down coastal town although after exploring the back streets we did find a lovely little square and some decent(ish) restaurants – shame we had already eaten some dodgy empanadas while purchasing some supplies for our trip to the San Blas Islands.
Our hotel – Hotel San Sebastián De Uraba– was a shocker. There was no blankets on the bed – I had to get up in the middle of night to go grab some from the front desk – plus the cafe next door blared music out until past midnight when I again went downstairs and asked the front desk guy to have a word. Colombians have this thing about deafening music. We were up early to grab our boat across to Capurgana – it was a 90 minute boat tide versus 1000km by car. The boat was a large speed boat with 3 300HP engines. Fully loaded there was about 30 of us on board and the boat did not mess around. The journey wasn’t too rough so Dits go to Capurgana without any serious sea sickness. We then had to grab another boat to take us to Zapsurro and our tiny little hotel called Hilltop Zapsurro. We didn’t get the name as there was not a hilltop in sight. Zapsurro was a sleepy little town with very few backpackers. We felt we were really integrating with local life. We struggled to find a place to serve breakfast or dinner outside of the official eating hours.
We spent a leisurely day exploring the village and catching up on sleep before getting an early night sleep. Once again we were woken by an incredible storm around 2am – the thunder really is scary sounding. We now know it is wet season in Central America this time of year. We grabbed a boat back over to Capurgana for our midday briefing from San Blas Tours. There are about 17 on the tour with a majority of women and a lot of them Irish. Deryn and I are of course older than anyone by at least 25 years. US$450 for 4 days of back to basic on these isolated islands with the local Kuna people. I can’t wait!
