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Us Discovering the Latin Americas

a travel blog by ryan & debbrial


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Lake Atitlan

Panajachel, Guatemala

Most every city, town and country side out side of Guatemala City is abundantly green. Lake Atitlán is located in the high mountains so our drive from Guatemala City to the lake was a beautiful. The higher up we got the more agriculture fields we saw. When we were in Antigua we were wondering were the massive bundles of fresh fruit and vegetables in the market came from, guess this is where. On our drive we saw a lot of indigence towns positioned on the sides of the green mountains and surrounded with acres of corn fields, cabbage, beets, tomatoes, peppers, chiles, etc.

More corn fields

Most of the women in the towns wear the traditional Guatemalan attire: thick, colorful textile shirts tucked into a long skirt and wrapped with a wide textile belt plus a bundle or basket on their head while they walk down the streets. Three hours of driving later we arrived at Panajachel, one of larger towns on Lake Atitlán. We checked into our hostel, Villa Luptia, then roamed the vendor filled streets for sightseeing and dinner.

Ryan wearing goofy hat

This morning we took a water taxi (small 20 passenger fiberglass floating device) to another town across the lake called San Pedro. We walked up and down the market filled street and ended up back at the boating dock for breakfast. While the breakfast was great we were not impressed with the town. There really is not much to do in the town besides go to the museum, rent dirt bikes to ride around the lake (way too expensive) or swim in the lake. Unfortunately, the lake is currently covered in slimy, mushy pea green algae.


Algae in Lake Atitlan
The owner of the restaurant where we had breakfast said, “this is totally not normal for the lake and it just appeared a few days ago.” There was even a story about it on the cover of the daily newspaper. “Usually” he said, “the water is crystal clear blue”; which makes sense since our travel books said Lake Atitlán is considered the most beautiful lake in the world. It is surrounded by tall green mountains, several volcanoes and lots of small traditional villages.

Lake Atitlan

Bummer. If only we were a few days earlier. Anyways we took the water taxi back to Panajachel then hung out the rest of the day planning our next adventure to Honduras. At night we hit the town again for some drinks and ended up at a local bar called “Rock On”. There was a band of three guys: one guitar player, one bass player and the drummer / signer. They were playing Spanish rock cover songs and were pretty good! The funniest part though was a few of their groupie friends in the bar trying to head bang to the music. We stay for a few songs then headed home.

Lake Atitlan

permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on October 24, 2009 from Panajachel, Guatemala
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Detour !!!

Copan, Honduras

Pretty much as soon as the sun rose and the roosters started cock-a-doodle-doing we got up and packed up and on the road out of town at about 7:30 AM. Back tracking from a few days before we headed back to Guatemala City. Everything was going good since we were familiar with the roads until… we hit a detour in the middle of the Guatemala City because of a marathon. Craig and I quickly searched the van for our travel books and road map of Central America. To make the problem worse most all the streets are one-way in the city so we were up and down and back and forth etc. When we finally thought we were on the right track, about 20 minutes out of the city, we started seeing signs for El Salvador. Oooppps. Wrong road. Oh crap now its back to the city and one-way roads!! Navigating our way through the streets and stopping to ask people we finally made it out of the city and onto the correct road to Honduras. This was a 2 ½ hour detour. All was good for the next 3 hours until….again….we had trouble. On the last road and about 35 Miles from the boarder the van OVER HEATED. Fortunately we came to a stop right in front of a House. A wife, husband and little girl came out to see what was up. They brought us a bucket of water to help the car cool down. We waited about 40 minutes then were on our way again. After this we decided it was bad luck not to have a name for the van. SO we decided to name it after the town we broke down in. Her name is “Chiquimula”. The boarder into Honduras was a breeze unlike the prior and a blessing from the past two incidence. Beyond that we had no more problems, got into the town Copán and found our next hostel Manzana Verde.



permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on October 25, 2009 from Copan, Honduras
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Copan Ruinas

Copan, Honduras

Copan Ruinas is the name of the town and the name of the famous Mayan ruins. The small town of Copan Ruinas is set on a steep hill with cobble Stone streets and old colonial buildings (cobble Stone roads look cool but aren‘t the most fun thing to drive or walk on). There is not much to do in town but out of town there are several natural related activities. In the morning we went to the Copan Ruins. It only took us about 2 hours to walk and after Tikal we were not too impressed. These ruins were pretty small comparatively and not as many were dug up as the map indicated. Kinda disappointing. On the other hand, these ruins are famous for the finely preserved Mayan hieroglyphics and sculptures which were actually impressive.

Sacrifice Altar

Copan Carvings

So after walking around the ruins and taking pictures we went on a natural walk through the forest (still in the National Park) imaging what the area looked like to the Mayans (as the sign at The Entrance told us to do). We came across another ball court in the middle of the forest, that was not on the tourist map, and lots of cool spider webs. The trail ended at the park parking lot where van was parked.

Since the ruins only took a few hours we decided to go to another popular attraction: Macaw Mountain. Macaw Mountain is a bird Sanctuary that collects abandoned and endangered birds. We saw, of course, lots of macaws, local parrots, toucans, owls, and hawks. My favorite was the toucans.


Up close and personal Toucan
Ryan got a great picture of one.

Ryan with Macaws

Craig with Macaws

Debbrial with Macaws

The rest of the day we went back to town and hung out with some other backpackers.



permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on October 26, 2009 from Copan, Honduras
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Rain, Rain Go Away

Gracias, Honduras

One day was enough in Copan; our next stop is Gracias; supposedly the capital of Central America back when the Spanish came to conquer, then on through El Salvador to Nicaragua. We got on the road mid-morning and had a smooth drive to Gracias besides the occasional cattle herding blocking our way. Here’s some pictures…..

Cow Hearding down the Main Road

Sharing the Road with Cows

We got into Gracias at lunch time, all starving we agreed to go to the closets restaurant. Driving through town we were a bit shocked. For being the capital of Central America back in the day this place (in Ryan’s words) is a “Shit Hole”. We did not see one smiling face within the 10 blocks of the town. Anyways it ended the first restaurant we saw was a Chinese restaurant (which was packed with locals so we thought it would be good) needless to say NO!! Fried rice and chop suey were the only things they had on the menu (clue #1) and both tasted like they were cooked in 10 sticks of butter and a bottle of soy sauce. After choking down lunch we searched for the hostel recommended in the travel book. This place was a “Shit Hole” too. Since it was still early in the day we decided to move on to the next town La Esperanza about 90 km away.

Within 10 minutes of getting on the road again it started raining. Ok, not a big deal. Then…….about little over an hour later the paved road turned into a dirt road. Ok, kinda a big deal. We were on this wide but rocky, muddy potholes (the size to eat a tire)-filled dirt road for another 45 minutes. Ryan totally handled the road driving the van BUT I was white knuckled and screaming the whole time; while Craig was sleeping in the back and shouting “What the bloody hell is up with this road”. Ok, big deal. The rain was coming down harder and harder, pissing cows and elephants. We finally came to a small town and pulled off the road. We sat in the car for about 30 minutes contemplating what to do. When the rain let up Ryan and Craig got out and asked a local where we were and how far it was to La Esperanza. The really nice old guy directed us back to the main road and said it was another 15 minutes to town. By this time the rain had settled down and the road turned into at least a nice maintained dirt road. In town we easily found our hostel, Casa Mia, and settled in for the rest of the rainy yet still warm evening.


permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on October 27, 2009 from Gracias, Honduras
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Off Road Driving Chiquimula

San Miguel, El Salvador

Only 60 km to the Honduras-El Salvador boarder then another 60 km to San Miguel, El Salvador today’s destination. We headed out early again this morning leaving La Esperanza at like 8:00 AM. We were warned by the lady whom owned the hostel that the road out of town is worse than the road in.

Excellent Roads of Honduras, NOT!
Oh Great here we go again!!! She was right. Right out of town the roads were muddy step-ups with even bigger potholes.

Pot Holes that will eat your tire

Ryan checking the deep potholes

Luckily the mud on these roads actually soaks in most of the rain water leaving a still pretty solid ground to drive on. Plus, we figured if the Chicken Buses can make this trip so can we.

Chicken Bus Mobbying It
So up and down, mud, dirt, rocks, Mountains, pine trees, rivers, waterfalls, sunshine and small Mountain / country villages. We took in the amazing, beautiful views on this dirt road the whole way to the boarder 60 km and 4 ½ hours later. When we got to the boarder we barely recognized it. It was one building, one teenage kid with a gun, one old man and two baby puppies. The old guy checked our passports and papers for the car logged it all in and let us pass.

Welcome to El Salvador, Finally!
On we went, still on the rocky dirt road down the Mountain into El Salvador. Half and hour later we FINALLY came to a PAVED road. We continued heading south to San Miguel (which we almost drove right through since we were driving so much faster on the paved road and lost track of distance to time ratio). U-turn….All three of us were glad to find a hotel and get out of the van, plus Chiquimula needed a break too.

permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on October 28, 2009 from San Miguel, El Salvador
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B and lots of BS

Leon, Nicaragua

300 Km to Leon in Nicaragua, our next destination. We made it to the El Salvador / Nicaragua boarder pretty quickly on the good paved roads. The boarder crossing was another easy process: check our passports, log the information and pay a couple bucks. We had heard from other travelers that the main roads in Honduras has a lot of police stops. Since we were mostly on mountain dirt roads before we had not encountered any of these yet. BUT not even 2 minutes out of the boarder crossing we hit our first one. Two Honduras transit police whistled and pulled us over. One guy came up to the vehicle with a kinda bad attitude and said he was going to write us a ticket for not wearing our seat belts. Mind you we read and heard prior that there are no road rules in Honduras. Anyways after looking at all our paper work to make sure the van was legit he was still adamant about giving us a ticket for something. We ended up paying him $20 to let us go. Another 10 minutes down the road we came to our second police road block check point. This time the police checked our vehicle paper work and passports again and asked if we had a “triangle”. Triangle? What? He was talking about the reflective triangle thing you carry in the car if you brake down on the side of the road. No we don’t have one. So again we paid him $20 not to write us a ticket and let us move along. Another 10 km we came to our third police check point. The cop asked us for our paperwork and the triangle again. This time we were not going to paid. We told them we didn’t have a triangle nor any money since the first two police stops took it all. Round and round and on we go (without paying this time). 15 Km another police check point. Paperwork, Triangle? No and no money! On we go. By this time we have figured out the drill. The more they rambled Spanish to us the more we rambled English to them saying, “We don’t speak ANY Spanish, we don’t understand them and we don’t have any money”. Subsequently, in the 200 km from the El Salvador / Honduras boarder to the Honduras / Nicaragua boarder we hit 13 police blocks in total. Each time the same thing. We went through the Nicaragua boarder fairly easily besides waiting an hour for a vehicle permit. The people in the boarder offices work as slow as snails. Ok last stretch till Leon. Everything was going great. Great roads, great scenery, and great time. BUT… 5 km out of Leon we hit a Nicaragua police check point. This time the police said he was going to write us a ticket because Ryan was driving with is shirt off. Yeah, yeah we know what you want. “We don’t speak Spanish and we have no money!!” Surprisingly this guy was not budging as quickly but eventually we BS our way out of it. So this is where the B and lots of BS comes from: 300 Km, 14 police road blocks, 2 we paid ($40 total) and that’s an 85%. Not too bad!!

Police Check Point in Honurdas

Police Check Point in Honduras Again!!!



permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on October 29, 2009 from Leon, Nicaragua
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Volcano Boarding

Leon, Nicaragua

In Leon we stayed at the Big Foot hostel which is known for offering Volcano Boarding, of course we signed up. On the tour there were 18 people. We loaded into two Toyota pickup trucks with padded bench seats in the beds and headed out for a 45 minute drive to Cerro Negro (Black Hill) Volcano. The road to the volcano was dirt, surprise surprise, so by the time we got to the volcano we were all covered in dirt and dust. Gross! The trucks drove to the base of the volcano then it was an hour hike up the side of the volcano. We took a couple rest stops to catch a breath and because we had a hung over guy who got sick a few time. Yuck. On our hike up the volcano we stopped at some sulfur pits which the guide lead us close to then immediately turned around. We all took our quick pictures and turned back too before getting poisoned. At the top of the volcano the guide lead us to the volcano’s crater for some more pictures before heading to the boarding area.

So before I go on I will explain Volcano Boarding really quick. It should be called “Volcano Sledding” instead of “Volcano Boarding” since you actually sit on a wood plank board with a hard acrylic strip on the back. Anyways we got to the top of Cerro Negro put on our orange and blue jump suits and goggles.


Suited up for Volcano Boarding
We got our pep talk which included: sit on the back of the board, keep the handle vertical, tap your heels on both sides of the board to keep straight, lean back and don’t put your hands down (natural reaction). Ryan was first to volunteer and had to pick a partner to race down the hill. Naturally he picked the hung over guy. Off they went!!! Ryan pushed off first he’s in the lead. Then hung over came right on his tale. And bomb over Ryan went, caught an edge. Ouch. Hung over took the lead and gaining speed. Ryan’s back up on his board and to another good start but then again caught an edge! Ryan back on the board but couldn’t catch up to hung over. Must be those loose nerves?? Too bad. Anyways, a few people later Craig and I went down the hill. We both made it down with only a few falls, a couple scraped limbs and lots of volcanic rock in our jump suits.

Debb Volcano Boarding

Craig Volcano Boarding

I got top speed of us three at 40 kmph. BUT out of the 18 people in the group a girl won at 69 kmph and a really bad abrasion on her leg and arms to show.


The girls leg who went 69 km down the volcano
When everyone was down from the volcano we packed up and headed back to Leon; again getting covered in dirt and dust. Race #2 who can get to the showers first!! From this trip we made a lot of friends at our hostel and the one across the street. We all hung out that night and by the end of the night we recruited 3 Swedish guys and 1 Norwegian guy to ride in the van with us to Granada the next morning.

permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on October 30, 2009 from Leon, Nicaragua
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The race to Granada

Granada, Nicaragua

The ride from Leon to Granada was fine. We only got stopped once by the police. And before he got done checking our paperwork he opened the van side door looked in the back and saw the 3 big Swedish guys. He quickly closed the door didn’t even finish looking at our paperwork and let us go. Haha. In most towns in Central America Saturday is market day; Granada was no different. When we got in town about noon all the streets in the center were full of fruit and vegetable, clothes, nick-nacks stales and people. One wrong turn on a one-way street and we were driving right down the center of the market.

Market in Granada
It was such as tight squeeze for the van but we inched our way through. A couple more turns and we were at the hostel.

Just as we pulled up so did another couple from Leon, whom were staying at our same hostel. Before we left we jokingly said we would race them to Granada since they were taking Chicken Buses and leaving at the same time as us. Low and behold here they came running up the street as we were getting out of the van. The guy (of the couple) ran up to the hostel door, smacked it and claimed his win. Ooohhhh. We were all laughing.
After we checked in we found out there was another 8 people from the hostels in Leon here in Granada. Since we had such a big group we planned to all go out drinking that night, half way to celebrate Halloween and half just cause.


Ryan selling candy on Halloween

  • **(Some orphan kids from a local shelter. The lady who owned the hostel (originally from Holland) explained that the shelter takes the kids in when the families don’t want to or can’t care for the kids. The shelter offers Spanish course to foreigners to raise money and is looking for volunteers to come teach English to the kids. Ryan and I are thinking to come back here to volunteer instead of Hogar in Honduras since there is still turmoil in Honduras and we still have not heard back from that orphanage. Will keep you posted.)

    Orphan kids dressed up for Halloween

    Halloween

    •

    permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on October 31, 2009 from Granada, Nicaragua
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    Back to the Beach

    San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

    The last few days have been pretty chill. We have not done much but travel and relax. Sunday we left Granada still with Craig, the 3 Swedish (Emil, Henrik, Pierre) and the Norwegian (Erik). We drove about an hour south to a town called San Jorge where we got a people and car ferry to Isla Omepete, the largest island on the Nicaraguan lake. The island is made up of two volcanoes one larger one smaller. We stay at a very tranquil hostel in the jungle on the smaller volcano side.

    Hanging out at the hostel

    Isla Omepete Volcano at night



    San Ramon Waterfall
    Monday we climbed a hot and very humid 3 km hike up to the San Ramon waterfall. It didn’t seem far a first but we were all sweating and exhausted by the time we got to the top. The water was sooooo cool and refreshing.


    After our hike we headed back to the ferry. We were about 5 km from the main road from the smaller volcano side of the island to the bigger volcano side of the island and on our last big hill WHEN... the van ran out of GAS. NOoooo.


    Chiqimula out of Gas
    We were on a time schedule to catch the ferry back to the main land in less than 2 hours. So a couple of the guys started walking to the gas station. Luckily a local guy who lives close by gave them a ride to the gas station and back. Within a half hour we were ready to go again.

    Filling her back up
    Thankfully cause none of us wanted to stay on the island another night. On to San Juan del Sur, a popular surfer / backpacker town in south Nicaragua.

    Today, Tuesday, we finally made it to the beach!! Ryan was so happy to pull his surf board out of the bag and hit the water. Unfortunately the waves were not that big. He did get a few good rides though. We hung out on the beach most the day and I worked on my very past due tan for being in Central America for a month now.


    Maderas beach

    By mid-afternoon we all were pretty crispy from the hot sun and salt water combo. The rest of the evening we chilled out and recovered from the sun.

    Sunset in San Juan del Sur
    Tomorrow it is on to Costa Rica already and all the guys just announced they like us so much they are coming with us. Lots more fun and good company!!!

    permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on November 3, 2009 from San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
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    Unexpecting the Expected

    Arenal, Costa Rica

    A majority of our day was spent at the Nicaragua and Costa Rica boarder in Peña Blanca. We all expected this boarder to be the most organized and easiest since Costa Rica is a very popular tourist destination. BUT it was not. We got to the board around 11:00 AM coming from San Juan del Sur so a kinda busy time in the morning. After a little confusion we figured out the van needed to be 1st checked for drugs by the Nicaraguan boarder patrol (which we all didn’t understand since we are leaving their country and why would they care…but of course we didn’t have any drugs so whatever) and 2nd each one of us had to do the normal immigration stuff: get a stamp out of the country. Ryan and Erik went to get the van searched, which took an hour, while the rest of us went to immigration, 20 minutes. First round of waiting. After Ryan and Erik got their stamps out of Nicaragua we were on to the Costa Rica boarder. This should be easier, faster, more organized. Ummm. Unfortunately we got there just as a tour bus arrived but luckily we got in front of most of them. Waiting in line again. Another 30 minutes…all stamped…cool we’re done. Not! Just when we thought we were on our way out of the board and on to Costa Rica there was one more stop. A patrol guy asked us for our permit to drive the car in Costa Rica like Nicaragua. Mind you Ryan asked the guy at immigration into Costa Rica if he needed a permit and that guy said “No“. U-turn back to the boarder. A little more confusion and we found the sort-of office (people working out of a tour bus) where we get the car permit. Just as we got there 1:00 PM (siesta time) the computer system “went down”. Yeah right. They said they were going to wait an hour plus before trying them again or doing the paperwork manually. Yeah siesta time. Waiting, waiting, waiting…. Needless to say we didn’t get out of the boarder till 3:00 PM, five hours later.

    It was 180 km from the boarder to La Fortuna our next destination. Not even a quarter of the way there it started to rain. Then about half way it started to down pour. By this time it was dark and we could barely see the pot holes in the road. BOOM! We hit a pothole that almost ate the right front tire and the wind shield wipers stopped working. Immediately we pulled over; Ryan fixed the wiper (this means he hit the dashboard and stirring wheel till they switched back on) and off we went again. Finally after much effort at trying hard to get to La Fortuna tonight we all decided, just outside of Arenal, it would be better to stop at the next hotel to spend the night. The hotel we stopped at ended up being a great little hotel / restaurant run by a local farm family. Right behind the restaurant was the family’s house, barn and land. The couple was really hospitable. We talked with the father while his wife fixed us up some local dinner. He told us all about the area, Costa Rica and promised to let us milk his cows in the morning. Which we did.


    Debb and Ryan and a half full bucket


    Debb Milking Away

    Close us Utters


    The cows all lined up ready to be milked




    permalink written by  ryan & debbrial on November 4, 2009 from Arenal, Costa Rica
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    We met through a mutual friend in college about 5 years ago. We were friends for about 4 years and dated for a year and half. We recently got married on Sunday, May 24, 2009.

    Now for the fun part... We decided not to do the typical buy a house and settling down, instead it was sell...

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