20/02/2011

The hostel we are staying at has a bit of a weird vibe, there are monkeys tied up out back and the owners that are french were incredibly strange.

Zara and I hired bikes and cycled to a few towns getting a beer along the way but really from our base Muyagalpa there wasn’t much to check out especially being a Sunday and everything was closed.

So, after cycling Zara and I just got drunk at the hostel where we met a whole bunch of people for banter and good times.

Earlier in the day we checked out those monkeys that I mentioned earlier and one being very friendly the other aggressive as all hell, the aggressive managed to get close enough to me to almost rip out one of my dreads and scratch the fuck out of my head… I was bleeding profusely but it was just a scratch and so it stopped bleeding quickly, I thought nothing out it but if I wake tomorrow frothing at the mouth, please take me to hospital.

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19/02/2011

Despite the hangover I was actually doing alright, normally I cannot function at all but I was able to pack my things and was able to walk to the bus station and ride a bus for 2 hours with some Germans who I met in Guatemala and El Salvador (Christina and Felix), an Austrian guy (Lupi), Ian and Zara.

One woman on the bus selling random goods gestured giving me a hand job… it was very funny and looked like she would be pretty good at it but with a little hesitation I declined.

The bus took us from Granada to Rivas then we hopped on a boat over to the volcanic island of Ometepe. We found a hostel and checked in and only walked around town to find some drink but it even being a Saturday night the place really wasn’t kicking off. Instead the group of us chilled at the hostel and I was even able to have an early night.

18/02/2011

In Leon the French girl Elise told us about a place where you can get a buffet breakfast for $5 and like the happy hour in the bar last night I took advantage of the all you can eat situation.

I went there with some of the others I met last night and I managed to eat, in total about 8 eggs in all different styles, fruit with Yogurt, pancakes and whatever else I could get my hands on.

Also at this place it was possible to sneak into the ‘infinity’ pool area where there were ducks chilling by the poolside and just a nice place to relax away from the heat of the sun.

Zara and I later walked to the waterfront that was incredibly filthy and smelly that really wasn’t worth the walk.

Later, again like last night a group of us got very drunk at the hostel and later went out to find a bar – things were not too lively around town the some of the places we hopped into were eith really expensive to get into or were shutting up for the evening. We did (after meeting some British girls who joined us) find a Karaoke bar that was cheap and actually good fun because after the several shots of tequila that boosted my confidence, I was even singing to Abba and other terrible music.

The night ended at about 4 am back at the hostel where a lot of stumbling and falling with drunken banter occurred but all in all a great night out.

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17/02/2011

In the midday sun Zara and I headed onto Granada on a roasting cramped minibus; sweat dripping from my back down to my underwear, it really wasn’t very comfortable.

We made it though and like Leon it was also very hot in Granada, the streets were filled with the type of tourists with name badges buying well over priced “local” merchandise.

Zara and I found a hostel that was riddled with restrictions including being charged $5 per bottle of alcohol bought from outside the hostel and a ridiculous price for the drinks and even water was over priced. Hostels that do this don’t have that warm welcoming feeling about them and as such I don’t ever recommend them.

The hostel was called the Bearded Monkey and right away I met two Israeli girls - Einut and Hagit with an English fella, Ian.

Happy hour at the bar inside the hostel began when we arrived so naturally we sat up at the bar and drank for a few hours. We tried wondering around town but after 30 minutes we were back at the bar to drink more.

It was a good time chatting to everyone and later after getting some food and attempting to go out we went back to the hostel and then to bed.

16/02/2011

This is the thing about sleeping in my tent, it gets me away from hopping n the Internet when I have access to it, which is generally most of the time, meaning I sleep very well.
One thing I don't like is to be woken up at 5 am to hike up and see a sunset that was more than disappointing - dark and cold were the other things to mention.
Returning back to camp I had to get more sleep, so o slept up until breakfast was served - muesli with chocolate milk, where most of the packets had gone off.
The hike down the volcano was quick but it was extremely hot but thankfully the last 40 minutes of the hike was helped out by a guy with a 4x4.
We grabbed a well earned beer at the base and waited for a bus to take is back down the hill - this didnt happen so we ended up hitching.
Zara and I rested for the arvo and in the evening got a drink, went shopping and I cooked up a festival for our guide for the hike, the French couple, Zara and myself.

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15/02/2011

After not much sleep I had to get up at 5am to start the trek, although I was completely nackard I managed to get up, pack my things and get over to the other hostel that organized the trek.

Zara and I met with Fanny and Martin and headed off on our trek with our guide Octovio. It was a short walk followed by a local bus to the base of the volcano where there was the immediate smell of sulfur and ground was bubbling from action below.

The hike to begin with was relatively easy before reaching the actual base were things got a little rough; we rested under a mango tree for sandwitches to get away from the midday sun then tackled the steep uphill.

Getting to the top of a hill surrendered a beautiful panoramic of the landscape including the smoking volcano, Leon in the distance, the mars like landscape of the volcano’s debris and an oasis like area where we were camping for the evening.

Although exhausted when reaching the campsite where there was lush grass to lay down on under the shade of palm trees viewing the enormous volcano from a distance, it really was unbelievable.

Using the campsite as a base we watched the sunset over the beach and also looked inside the volcano where we could see lava 140 meters down through the cloud of sulfur, only seeing hazed glimpses of the red glow from the lava. Cool none the less.

Dinner was a concoction made by Octovio involving pasta, very few vegetables and a cream dipping sauce, although he did burn the bottom it wasn’t actually half bad.

I didn’t last long into the evening before hitting the bed hard.

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14/02/2011

Natalie, Zara and I hit up the beach today taking a cramped bus there. It was nice but this beach was nothing special, we spent most of our time napping in a random hotel hammocks then baking on the grey and black sand messing around with two Nicaraguan kids who kept on competing with me with handstands, wrestling and burying eachother in the sand.

When we got back Zara and I organized a hike up a volcano with a French couple we met the other day, Fanny and Martin.

Earlier in the day Natalie and I moved into a double room in the hostel for some extended fun for the evening and after several beers at the bar, it was good fun.

13/02/2011

Volcano boarding!

At 1 pm after changing hostels into a better one a group of people from the hostel jumped on a truck and made our way to a nearby volcano where we hiked up an over due for an eruption volcano. This is the only place in the world where you can do this and its pretty crazy. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t snow board down it but still tobogganing down a steep incline of an active volcano at high speeds is still a fantastic laugh.

The hike to the top wasn’t all that bad either although it was extremely windy but even if it was just for the view. As posted below.

Included in the $30 price tag for the experience was a t-shirt, 2 mojitos a beer a nights accommodation in the hostel and breakfast – not bad.

After a few drinks in the evening I went out to buy food to cook for Zara and Natalie, the food was ok but because I was pretty tipsy I managed to burn the bottom of the pan, twice.

I chilled with Natalie on a hammock till late in the evening.

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12/02/2011

Not much to mention today, just chilled on the hostel and did nothing more than drink 1/3 of a bottle of rum after eating some street food in the evening. Zana an Aussie girl who I met yesterday wanted to share a room because the beds were much more comfy than the beds in the dorm and for an extra $1.50, why the hell not. Actually did also sort out my issues with my Canadian visa application and now that that is done I don’t have anything to worry about till I get my flight in Columbia.

11/02/2011

I didn’t sleep all to well because of the thought of missing my bus to Nicaragua; thankfully I was woken up by my alarm and a worker in the hotel.

The journey on the bus was no different from any other 13 hour journey but I did meet a a girl named Natalie from England, we got along well for the journey and had fun banter and as it turned out, she was headed to Leon like me.

Crossing the border into Honduras and out again set us back $18 each for the journey, making this trip relatively expensive.

Natalie and I were dropped off on the side of the road at an intersection where chicken buses take people to Leon, this saved us a bit of time and a little bit of money too.

Arriving in Leon we immediately got a taxi to a hostel that was fully booked but Natalie had made a reservation so I went looking for another place when I bumped into Joe who I met on a drunken night in San Pedro in Guatemala. We went in search for another hostel finding a grimy one but a nice chilled scene, it was cheap but it was cheap for a reason, the dorm was packed full of people and peoples belongings and using the showers involved using buckets of water.

Soon after we went out for drinks despite me feeling extremely tired but somehow I managed to get pretty wasted and spent the early hours of the morning making out with Natalie.

Chicken bus, Giant Jenga and Natalie and me

10/02/2011

Eating the leftover food from last night in the morning really didn’t help my hangover.

I was up at 9.30 after going to bed after 5, it was physically painful to do anything but I pushed forward and even to go shopping after saying bye to Coon.

I wondered a mall for ages looking for a battery for the camera that was given to me to fix, it’s a great camera worth $400 and because I fixed it after the people left I wasn’t able to return it – now its mine.

I can take pictures again!

After napping in a hammock for the afternoon I left the hotel and made my way by taxi to the Tica bus station where I booked a bus to Nicaragua. Conveniently there was a hotel attached to the station where I checked into a room for $12. This is where I met Vanessa, a Canadian chick from Vancouver island who joined me for dinner and although we had a lot in common, got a long so well and had entertaining banter I needed sleep, so I crashed.

4.00am start tomorrow.

09/02/2011

I lazed around the poolside for the entire day and made a phone call to the cook family and good friends of the family and who I always stay with when im in London. It was great chatting to them and I got some fantastic news from them too – a cheque from the government for £583 because I didn’t go over the tax threshold 2 or 3 years ago. Yay!

Lars was planning to head into the city for meet up with Balta and some others to attend another ladies night like last week so I decided to tag along because then I would have a place to stay and organize a few things like bus tickets to Nicaragua. I managed to convince two german girls (Jenny and Jasmine) who just arrived to come along aswell as an American girl (Melissa). Max who is also a Saussie (Shit Aussie) wanted to come also so we had a bit of a crew together for another night out on the piss – errrgg.

Arriving in San Salvadore again we stayed at Tropicana hotel where we had some beers and some food before hopping in a taxi to the nightclub for another $10 entry for all you can drink for a few hours.

Like last time we ended up in the place next door for dancing and more beer – I ended up spending a little too much money.

I only dance when Im wasted and I got involved on the dance floor with serval local girls with one that seemed very into me, she was beautiful but was there with her best guy friend who didn’t mind whatsoever; the same issue as last Wednesday, the girls will dance and when you move in for a kiss they say no. I don’t quite understand it but I suppose in my drunken state at that time in the night I don’t understand a lot.

Most of the crew managed to get a ride back to El Tunco whilst Coon (another Dutch guy) myself went back to the hotel with Balta driving stopping for food on the way.

08/02/2011

Lacey was fantastic in the sack, really good fun and our bodies connected increadiblly well. i suppose you get the picture with what happened in the room of Tropicana hotel for the morning so I don’t need to paint it out for you. Lacey and Leala where headed north into Honduras whilst I needed to get back to El Tunco where I had to spend one night before heading into Nicaragua. The three of us hopped into the hotels taxi where I was shortly dropped off in a sketchy area of the city where I had to hop on a chicken bus to Libertad and another to El Tunco. The two girls im sure ill bump into again somewhere again in Cenral America, but if not il be seeing them again in Canada in the summer.

Arriving back at El Tunco Lodge I checked in again and despite being very tired other people who I had previously met wanted to hear some stories from my time in De Cameron, so I got a beer and told some stories by the poolside.

I tried having a nap in the arvo but because of the effects of drinking far too much over the past few days and the lack of sleep I was in limbo somewhere.

A Chilean girl who I met at Decameron approached me later in the evening and I honestly felt terrible because I legitimately did not remember her even though I had giving her my facebook details. I made up for it by inviting her and her sister out to dinner and it was good banter, and banter that was in mostly but broken Spanish… im glad my Spanish is improving.

I went for drinks at the other hostel down the road where I caught up with the two Norwegian girls, of which I thought I had a sure thing with one (Isla) but later found out whilst I was away she hooked up and still was with an American guy, damn!

Meanwhile the other Norwegian girl (Ida) told me if she didn’t have a boyfriend she would be with me in a heart beat… something I like to hear but really does suck.

It wasn’t a successful night by any means but still good fun whilst playing ace racing that I had introduced to the crew a few days ago, they had modified the game so that more alcohol would be consumed making it (obviously) more fun.

06/02/2011 – 07/02/2011

De Cameron All inclusive resort

Our time at De Cameron was epic, we took full advantage of the all you can eat buffets and took more advantage of the alcohol in irritating small cups but we wondered around carrying fistfuls of them, so it was alright. I honestly could not tell you how much we drank collectively but trust me, when I say a lot, I mean a lot at the end of the first day Winfred filled up a bucket with sex on the beach when the discotec closed and somehow only Lacey and myself got involved with it, having to carry it around the grounds from the salt water pool to the hot tub where we were repeatedly ask to get out to even an obstacle course that… I dunno why it was there. I even managed to spill some of the bucket on a security guard who took us on his golf cart to reception to get another key because Lacey and I managed to loose Winfred, needless to say he really wasn’t too happy.

During the 24 hours (well 26) I managed to end up eating 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches and 2 dinners, the food was all set out in normal buffet format with most of it being nothing too special, but this is what I was expecting.

One woman who was the manager of one of the restaurants hated me because shortly after going for a swim I entered her restaurant dripping with water… she told the staff to stop serving me drinks but I still managed to get some but the other staff liked us and I was even able to get the head chef to make us some bacon for our burgers.

We were quite the strange group of travelers entering this fancy posh peoples resort, entering with backpacks, strange hair styles and buckets for the fore mentioned alcohol; many people would turn and stare, and even take photos but we didn’t care because this experience was a drunken one and I was sure if we were embarrassing ourselves we wouldn’t ever be seeing these people again.

We did however meet some really cool people – mostly old but cool nonetheless and we did get drunk with them... when I say ‘get drunk with them’ I really mean ‘we were drunk with them’ but it was a bit of an issue because despite my conversational Spanish being pretty alright most people at the resort were Quebecor’s and my French is pretty poor.

The following day after an epic afternoon/evening drinkfest and funfest ;P with Lacey where I really didn’t have any sleep we went to get brekky and drink through our hangovers, it worked but only postponed the dreadfulness of sic feeling.

At 1 we had to checkout of the room and return the key, at this point we had our wristbands snipped and so we were only entitled to some food and not any more alcohol, this was a bit of a shame, so cleverly we asked for the wristbands as a souvenir and soon after used some sticky tape to reattach the bands to our wrists, this got us another 2 hours of more food and plenty more drink and when we actually left I and the rest were well past tipsy.

All this for $67!!!

This was a nice little holiday from backpacking and not having to worry about anything… actually I don’t generally worry about anything anyway apart from where to go to next.

Was it worth it? Hell yes!

After leaving the resort we took a bus to the nearest town and then a taxi up to San Salvadore, I was suppose to head back to El Tunco but Lacey and I jointly agreed to spend more time together so really without hesitation I went. I was still pretty drunk when getting into the taxi but 45 minutes into the journey after myself, Lacey and Leala had a nap I felt so rough… if only we were still in De Cameron – Damn withdrawals!

When arriving at the hotel Lacey and I went to bed and “worked off our hangovers”, heres a top tip, if you have a hangover from binge drinking for a few days sex can fix you right up…

What a night - Lacey your easily in my top 3.

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04/02/2011 + 05/02/2011

These two days I really do much other than eat the street food and get smashed off cheap beers from the corner store then heading out to the bars.

Friday night was the bigger of the two where I only have a vague recollection of the time in the bar, this was due to the drinking games we were involved with earlier in the night.

We played horse racing (or ace racing) and a new one to me called flip cup.

Two Norwegian girls I met at the other hostel (Ida and Elsa) were great fun too; I found myself being extremely straight up with one of them but unfortunately didn’t lead anywhere. But I do remember making out with Lacie on the beach before stubbing my toe on a rock when I went for a swim. Back at the bar whilst dancing (I only dance when I’m wasted) I remember making my way into the DJ booth and playing around with the equipment.

It was fun practicing my Spanish on the locals who come down for the weekend from the city.

Saturday night I tried not to drink too much because of the all inclusive resort ill be going to tomorrow. However I did drink all afternoon and had a wicked time with the Norwegian girls. I got back at a reasonable hour to sleep but not before downing 3 chicken Papooses and drinking a load of water.

Right now I’m feeling lazy, so apologizes for the lack of creative writing for this entry.

Me doing yet another handstand

03/02/2011

First things first, waking with a dazed/hungover feeling the first thing needed was another beer. We drank a few whilst we all packed our things and walked down to a mall where we had some cheap lunch and this is where I was convinced to go to an all inclusive resort for 24 hours where you get all you can eat and all you can drink for only, get this $67! Its about time I treat myself. Ill be going there on Sunday mid afternoon drinking till im stupid and eating as many steaks as I can! Im going there with a Dutch guy, the two Canadian girls I know from Vietnam and an El Salvadorian guy who took us out last night.

Later we hopped on the chicken bus to get back to El Tunco where I should have left my pack instead of lugging it about everywhere under the hot sun. I was suppose to move on from here but it didn’t happen, it could have been different.

I checked back into El Tunco Lodge where I stayed before but moved into the dorm where David (the French-Canadian guy who we lost on the bus on the way into town) was resting. He didn’t have a good story like I though he would but still I apologized for what happened and spent the afternoon and the evening chilling with people in the hostel then crashed out at a reasonable hour.

02/02/2010

Whist the others I was sharing a room with went to try surfing in the morning I nursed my hangover and chilled by the pool for the majority of the day. The two Canadian girls I ran into last night were organizing a trip to the city to party at a bar where it was ladies night. Guys had to pay $10 for entry and it was all you can drink. I wanted to go, as did the others and we all met up at 5pm to catch the shuttle there, it was only $1.50 for the journey but there were quite a lot of us, we boarded the bus with a total of 12 and when we got off it was already down to 10, David and an American guy were sitting at the front of the bus and somehow managed to not get off despite the rest of us making a racket when getting off. Im sure they will have a good story to tell.

We checked into a hotel hidden down a sketchy dark ally that was recommended by the El Salvadorian guy we met up with.

We hung about whilst we waited for everyone to prepare themselves before heading to the nightclub grabbing some food at a servo on the way there.

We had a few beers back at the hotel but really none of us were drunk but this didn’t matter because after paying the $10 entry fee the group of us took over the bar and downed copious amounts of drink including several (I’ve lost count) shots of tequila.

Their were some lovely girls at the bar and I got chatting to a few of them, thinking they were interested but after 12 am when the drinks were no longer free, it turned out that all she wanted was a drink and at $5 it wasn’t cheap.

We later moved on into another bar where I was now drunk enough to dance and had a great time with some locals.

It was 5 am when we all got back to the hotel when I chatted with lara till the early hours of the morning.

Some of the animals in the hostel…

01/02/2011

Again, even though I changed rooms yesterday I was still molestered… well raped… ganged raped by bed bugs, I had over 100 bites and all were red and so so itchy.

I had to wake early because I had a bus organized to get to a beach town called El Tunco in El Salvador.

Two of the three Australian girls joined me to the destination on another bus headed to the same place. Another guy from the hostel named David, a french-canadian guy joined me for the journey on my bus. Because the girls were headed in the same direction we kept on bumping into them at all the stops including the border where locals would sell their wods of American dollars to the people crossing the border being the currency for the country.

David, the two girls and myself checked into a room for $8 a night each that was pretty luxurious with air conditioning and a swimming pool out front, the beach was also a stones throw away and their were a bunch a tied up animals in the garden to amuse the locals albeit a little cruel.

We all went for a swim in the ocean and chilled on the beach for a little while before having to head into the nearby town on Libertad. I didn’t have much American dollars and so I needed an atm, it took us a little while to find a working one and after a ten minute walk out of town finally one worked. I just hope all my other attempts in the other machines didn’t take money out of my account.

Arriving back at el Tunco the four of us went out for dinner and found a bar down the road. This is where I (once again) bumped into Lacie and Leala who Ive now met in 5 different countries around the world over the past year. Crazy huh!

It was very drunken night and a successful one because I was able to find a Swedish girl who had some snus! Its Swedish tobacco in a tea bag that you put under your lip, I used this stuff a lot when travelling through Scandinavia and used a lot in the festivals ive attended.

Crossing the border

31/01/2011

Last night I got eaten alive by bed bugs. I spent the night tossing and turning before making the effort to apply insect repellant. It was a very restless sleep and the only other time I encounted bed bugs was when I was in Prague the second time.

In the morning I requested to stay in another room and the staff didn’t have any issues.

I moved to the room with three Australian girls and a Finnish girl who arrived later in the day.

The bites from the bugs were severe, down both my arms and I guessing about 35-50 bites, they were itchy as all hell and about the size of mosquito bites.

Despite this I carried on throughout the day trying unsuccessfully to find a replacement battery for my camera with an American girl named Sahara who was a crazy mix of ethnicities, then getting lunch with some other guys from the hostel at the market before hiking to Cross Point to get a lovely view of the city and the volcano Pakaya with the finish girl (Inessa).

Later in the afternoon I had dinner with the Aussie chicks and a German guy, again at the market and having a few drinks on the rooftop with a bunch of randoms whilst trying to repair a girls ipod which I was able to but some features didn’t work.

I went out for a second dinner with some of this crew to a place where to food was cheap but also god aweful, I got the chicken curry that had actually came from a tin.

Later we again chilled on the terrace with some others from NZ sinking back a few beers because this is the last night in Guatemala, not that I needed an excuse to drink.

30/01/2011

Left San Pedro today at 1pm. Before I left I had lunch with a girl who I met last night at the bar and bumped into Tara (first met in Palenque, Mexico) and again into Andrew (Snowboarded with in France). It’s a bit of a shame leaving this place because it is really cheap and I have really enjoyed my time here, not only the drinking and partying scene but also the studying aspect.

The bus took 3 hours to Antigua and I was joined on the journey with mostly German girls and one Canadian chick (Christine). I went back to the same hostel I stayed at the last two times I’ve been here and checked in having to pay a painful 50 Q for a dorm bed.

I went out for dinner with some Aussie girls I met at the hostel and Christine but being a Sunday nothing was really open and other than the more expensive restaurants the only real option was a fast food joint.

Later returning to the hostel my eyelids were getting heavy and so I crashed out early.

View from White cross in Antigua

29/01/2011

Ok, my blog is back on!

First off, ive got some fantastic news! Ive now finished my Spanish classes here in San Pedro, Guatemala and am feeling quite confident about speaking it although I sometimes have difficulty understanding some people when they talk too fast.

The other good news is that finally my tax refund from Canada has gone through, $1500 in my direction WOOOOTTT! Ive been waiting for this for well over a year now.

Some other news is that I have now booked flights from Columbia back to Vancouver setting me back only $400. All that is needed now is my visa to finalize processing (thanks dad) and to make my way to Bogotá by the 21^st of April for the aforementioned flights.

Last night was my last night in San Pedro, I had to, but didn’t want to say goodbye to my good friends Muy and Jen and its sad I probably won’t see them again on this trip.

It was a great night out where again I was bouncing about the bar meeting and chatting to everyone.

One girl to mention was a beautiful blond Swedish chick who loved metal who I want to get to know a bit better but unfortunately I had already booked my bus back to Antigua today, damn. She invited me to meet her at the dock at 5pm but I wont be about L. I should have got her email at least. Oh well, moving on.

Even still, as I mentioned it was I good night out.

Lake Atitlan from Hotel in San Pedro, Guatemala, 2011