Round the World with Ann and Katie

I arrived in Rio Dulce in the evening, it was dark and raining hard, so I got a taxi straight to a hostel and stayed there all evening.  For the next 2 days and nights it  rained hard, continuously, and as the hostel was across the river from the main town (over the longest bridge in Central America) we couldn´t really go anywhere.  Being in a hostel built half over a river is probably not the best place to be during torrential rain and if it hadn´t stopped raining when it did, I think the cafe part of the hostel would have flooded.  But eventually the rain did ease a bit and I even managed to walk across the bridge in to town without getting soaked.
The following day the rain even stopped briefly, so we decided to go out for the day and took a bus out of the town, some way around Lago Isabel.  When we arrived it started raining and the bus driver usefully told us to walk in completely the opposite direction to where we wanted to go.  But we eventually realised our mistake and found our way to the river and waterfall where we wanted to go swimming.  The waterfall is fed by a hot spring and is still relatively warm.  Unfortunately you half to swim across the cold river to get there, but it was worth it, has to be the closest thing I have had to a hot shower for a long time.  We also climbed up to the top of the waterfall to sit in the warm river at the top.

The following day we decided to leave Rio Dulce and get the boat down the river to Livingstone, a town on the coast.  The boat ride itself was really nice, going through a beautiful gorge and stopping off to see a castle built by the Spanish to protect the area from the English.  We arrived before it started raining really hard again and we spent the night in La casa de la Iguana, a really nice hostel.

The following day it was raining a bit but we decided to go for a walk along the beaches to the 7 alters, another waterfall and a series of pools in the jungle.  It was apparently where the original Tarzan film was made and it was really easy to see why they used it as the setting.  We had a nice swim in some of the pools and had fun jumping off the waterfall.

The next day I spent travelling back to Rio Dulce and then up to Flores.

From Antigua I decided to go to Panajachel by Lake Atitlan. Although its not that far away, it turned into a bit of an adventure using the public buses here. All the public buses here are old school buses from America, and when packed full of people they aren´t really the most comfortable way of getting around , but squashed on a seat with 3 other people you get to meet some interesting locals. I think it took about 5 buses in the end, despite the conductor on the 3rd bus assuring me it went direct. The guy on the 4th bus said the same thing and so when it ended at a village by the lake I assumed I was there. After walking round for a long time trying to work out why things didn´t really match up with the map that I had, someone told me that the village I wanted was actually another 8km around the lake, so I had one more bus journey to do.

Panajachel is in a really nice location, right by the lake, surrounded by mountains. I enjoyed looking round the village and the old town in the afternoon. Unfortunately it is apparently not safe to walk around the lake alone, so the following day I took several boats to visit a couple of the other small villages around the lake. This was still a really nice day, the villages are all a bit different and are interesting to see the mix of colonial and traditional buildings and the majority of people still wear the brightly coloured traditional clothing. Today I wanted to travel on to Rio Dulce on the coast, but due top more financial problems I have spent all day either in banks or on the phone to the bank at home. Finally I have some money again, so I will be back on the buses again tomorrow.

I finally started getting everything back to normal when I got to Copan.  I spent a nice day here visiting the Mayan ruins.  This was the first Mayan ruins I have seen so I was really impressed by them and learnt a lot about the Mayan culture and history of the area. 
The following day I travelled to Antigua in Guatemala.  A bit of a scary journey as I think the driver was trying to break some kind of speed record on the narrow mountain roads with a lot of lorries.  Relieved to arrive safely I found a hostel and spent the rest of the day looking round the town.  Its a really nice city, lots of impressive colonial buildings, and ruins from the many earthquakes.  I enjoyed looking round the cathedral, from the main square it looks in good condition but in actually fact only a very small part of the building is in use, the rest of it is in ruins. 
As I had enjoyed the afternoon there I decided to spend the next day, looking round more areas of the city, including some more ruins and churches, the museum and the market.

From Esteli it took all day and too many buses to count to get across the border into Honduras and up to the capital Tegus.  After struggling to find a cashpoint that worked we eventually managed to get some money and went for dinner. 
The next day I travelled to Tela, a small town on the Caribbean coast, so it was another day on buses.
The following day I hired a bike and cycled to the nearby botanical gardens, apparently one of the biggest in the world. 
That evening I was walking just a couple of blocks from the hotel to a cafe when i got stopped by 2 guys with a gun, so I just had to give them my bag.  Fortunatly I didn’t have that much cash on me or my passport but I did loose 2 bank cards and a lot of really annoying things like my guide book and suntan cream. 
The following day I spent all morning trying to sort everything out.  I have 2 other bank cards with me, neither of which would work, so I only had a bit of cash left, most of which I had to spend on the phone to banks in the UK.  I was unable to get any money from anywhere, so had to spend the weekend doing nothing as I had too lottle money left.  So I was not happy when I went to the bank first thing Monday morning and found that none of them were going to open  until Tuesday.  Another day of doing nothing at all.  I couldn’t even just go and sit on the beach because I couldn’t afford any suntan cream.
Finally the banks opened on Tuesday, and after waiting there for over 4 hours I finally managed to get some money.  So I got the next bus out of town.  I was trying to get to Copan but as I had spent so long at the bank, I missed the connecting bus and got stuck in San Pedro de Sula for a night.   But at least I had got away from Tela.  THe following morning I got the first bus to Copan and started getting everything back to normal again. 

From Leon it was what seemed to be a long bus ride further north to Esteli.  I arrived in the evening for what I planned to be just one night.  I found a really nice new hostel (La Luna)run by an English women and met a nice group of people there.  A few hours and glasses of wine later I didn´t want to leave.  SO the next morning after having a look around the town I decided to arrange some spanish lessons for a few days.  Although my Spanish is good enough to get by, I decided a few lessons would be a good idea to correct all the mistakes I´m making and to get a bit more fluent.  I found a really good teacher at the Gallery of heroes and martyrs and have spent the last 5 days having 4 hour lessons every morning. I have learnt a lot but still need a lot more practise, so I think I will carry on with lessons when I get home.

After finishing my lessons I have travelled further north and crossed the border into Honduras.  I spent my first night in the capital Tegucigalpa before travelling up to the coast today.