Category: TRAVEL

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LA FORTUNA – Alajuela, CRI

With today being our last day in Honduras, I headed out of the hotel to walk the West Bay beach just to see what was out there. A quick coffee and bite to eat at Bean Crazy, before collecting my gear and heading to the airport at 9:30 AM.

Avianca flight AV483 departed Roatán on time at 12:10 PM and took just on a hour and a half to reach the San Salvador International Airport in El Salvador. A relative short transit time of an hour and we were back in the air on the hour long Avianca flight AV630 to San Jose, Costa Rica. The day ended with 3½ hour night time drive through the mountains to our accommodations at Hotel Las Colinas in La Fortuna, with a quick stop at Desafio Adventure Company to pay for the coming days optional activities.

With no activities of note to speak of today, this might be the opportune time to relay to you one of the negatives with travelling over extended periods and that is the feeling of being alone, even though you’re travelling in a group. In my particular case, it manifests itself by me withdrawing into myself, putting the shutters up so to speak, seemingly somewhat irritable or negative at times.

How did someone as outgoing and fun loving as myself get into this position, as travel is meant to be all about fun, exploring the world, meeting new people and taking it easy. In my particular case, I believe that I ran into a perfect storm of several distinctly different elements culminating in to how I’m feeling.

  • The trip started out with a different itinerary that what I paid for, so even though there was nothing I could do about it, it was lingering in the back of my mind when having to fork out for stuff all the time and contained activities that I have no interest at all for.
  • I am the only male in a group of 6 and the age demographics mean that we have virtually nothing in common other than travelling together.
  • I’m the only native English speaker in the group. Spanish, German and French are the first languages, which makes it really hard to drop in and out of general conversations as English not always English.
  • Similarly, when decisions on activities planning, language, age, sex and interests have played a part in me having to do a considerable amount of my own research.

It’d be fair to day that I’ve done a fair bit of soul searching the past week or so, in trying to break through the funk I’m in. I’ve asked myself if it is me? Is it a control thing? Is it a social interaction problem? Sonia and I even spent an hour or so tonight discussing the situation and I’m grateful to see a different perspective.

At the end of the day it is me and for me alone to resolve, but I’m struggling with working out the how – hence withdrawing into myself. It’s not any of the “Avocados” fault per se that the dice have been rolled and came up snake eyes.

Its not that I haven’t enjoyed most of this leg of the trip, far from it, it’s been an amazing and at times eye opening walkabout through tropical Central America. I’ve had a great time for the most part.

I’ll get it sorted, I have no doubt about that, as there’s always sunshine on a rainy day – you just have to look for it.

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ROATÁN – Bay Islands, HND

I headed out of the hotel around 4:30 AM this morning to catch another sunrise, only to park my carcass ½ way down on West End Road, the main strip through town. From my vantage point I could witness the town waking up, the ant-like actions of those early morning workers ensuring the streets are clean, the overflowing bins and rubbish is cleared, the stocks are replenished – all in preparation for the new day.

It struck me that I’ve enjoyed this same activity of taking in a city/town/village waking up and greeting the new sunrise, in several hundred cities around the world and aside from architecture and languages, it the same underlying scene – people just working hard to earn a living. If you sit there long enough, the suspicion you are first met with, slowly changes with a simple G’day or Marhaba, Hola, Nǐ hǎo, Guten tag, Namaste, Salve, Salam or Konnichiwa – depending on locale, and you see people relax a little. Some will come over and ask if you are needing anything, some will take time out to have a chat, others have offered me a simple cup of coffee, some have even been curious about me.  For me, it’s a quiet moment of reflection that I actually enjoy.

While parked up, I sent an IM to the Sundowners Beach Bar regarding last night’s effort. To my surprise and appreciation, within an hour I received a response from them stating that “So sorry this happened to you and yes, it was a mistake! Thank you for bringing it to our attention and we’ll make sure we can address this issue with our bartenders.” They went on say that I have a $25 USD positive bar tab available upon my return.

Kudos to them for responding quickly and communicating their message clearly and effectively. Whilst I was not looking for a complete refund or comping of the bill, it’s great to see the they care about their business and their clients by taking ownership of the incident, which we all at times could learn a lesson from.

Breakfast was the popular Honduran street food of Baleada, which is a large flour tortilla filled with mashed fried red beans, crumbled cheese and in my case, one with fish and the other with chorizos. It was an honest, rib sticking breakfast of $3.25 USD and a far better proposition than what the hotel served up yesterday. Take it from me, the fish Baleada was the better choice.

The rest of the day was occupied with backing up photos, sorting out my freshly laundered clothing, reading a book or having a nap, but not necessarily in that order.

Not sure what the “Avocados” were up to, but around 4PM I headed down to Sundowners to work off my bar credit and thanks to Lesley and Will, I had a great time in doing so.

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ROATÁN – Bay Islands, HND

FYI, if you’re not in to scuba diving, snorkelling, sun bathing or trinket/souvenir shopping which pretty much makes up 75% of the 59 kilometre (38 mile) by 8 kilometre (5 mile) island with 154 kilometres (98 miles) of coastline that is Roatán ….. pretty much useless to you. 4 of the “Avocados” decided to go snorkelling, so it was on to Plan B for me.

Never been one to shirk a challenge, after picking at a pretty awful complimentary breakfast, I got a load of laundry sorted for $10 USD and then looked to hire a rental car for the day, which as it turns out, was one of those “island time” experiences.

I asked the reception about hiring a car and they organized ol’ mate to come get me in an hour. An hour and a half later Jaime Alvarenga, the owner/manager of Racing Car Wash & Rent A Car delivers a 3-year-old white automatic Kia Rio with 90k on the clock to the hotel. I pull out my licence, credit card and passport in preparation for the paperwork. He pulls out a couple of A4 sheets of paper, a sheet of carbon paper, asks me my name, hands me back all the offered identification, then requests the $50 USD hire fee upfront in cash after a walk around of the vehicle. He makes note of the dings/scratches/road rash, decrees Hasta Mañana and leaves me with the keys and drives off. No credit card swipe or imprint, no insurance details, no cash deposit or anything.

Lila and I decided that I would pilot and she would navigate and we were off like the starter at Race 4 at Flemington. We spent the day simply exploring the island with stops at places like Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hang Out, Kristi’s Overlook for lunch, La Sirena De Camp Bay for afternoon “tea” at the best beach bar, Isery Bar & Discoteca in a purpose built pirate ship, Moon Bay and all the towns, villages and settlements along the way. Essentially it was one big 110 kilometre (69 miles) lap of the island, from one tip to the other, on paved or heavily corrugated unpaved roads, which included both the Northern and Southern coasts.

Speaking of Moon Bay, we pulled up at the guard shack, where a well-armed security officer comes up to the car. I wind the window down and asked what was in Moon Bay and pointed my finger around, indicating that we’d like to take a look around. The guard simply says “yes yes”, drops the chain blocking our way and lets us through. You know you’re in an exclusive neighbourhood when all blocks are at least a ½ acre filled to the easements with various style of large abodes, there are a dozen yardies tending to the streets, footpaths and gardens and the For Sale signs have Sotherby’s written on them.

I spotted a yardie watering a garden in a cul-de-sac and with the rental car being covered in a shit tonne of dust, I pulled up, left the vehicle running with Lila in it and asked the fella if I could borrow his hose. I said I need to rinse the wife’s car off as she’ll kill me if I take it back all dirty. The fella gives me a knowing look, hands me the hose and then starts pointing out spots that needed extra attention. I get back in the car and let Lila know what happened, which was a good laugh.

We got back to our hotel just on dusk to hear 3 “Avocados” were going to go for a night snorkel and we’d all meet up at Sundowners Beach Bar for a feed & water. The three of us remaining headed over there at 6:30 PM for “Happy Hour” where 2 Margarita’s, a Vodka tonic and a local beer ran $26 USD. I queried the barmaid on the price and she says “Yes, the drinks are on the Happy Hour menu and it is not a 2 for 1 deal”.

With the bitter taste of the drinks “deal” lingering, Leila, Patricia and myself upped stumps and decided to dine as I did last night i.e. grab a six pack of Barley Pops from the corner store and head over to the local cholera cart for Tacos, Tortas and Quesadillas which had replaced the Gringas. The feed was just as great as last night and both the accompanying “Avocados” agreed with my sentiments as well. All in all, it was a great day in which no plans and a tourist map were actually the makings of a fun day.

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ROATÁN – Bay Islands, HND

Over the years I’ve come to view long travel days as a necessary evil and whether it is a control “thing” or what, but they seem to be whole lot more enjoyable when I’m behind the wheel of my own equipment.

There’s three elements to this mindset, one being that as a 15 year old Diesel Fitter with Dussin Constructions & Civil Engineering, the workshop manager drilled in to me that you can tell a lot about a person by just looking at their vehicle, workspace or toolbox – if they respect and look after the equipment/tools, work to a plan or simply wing it, or clean up as they go along as opposed to simply working in a pig sty.

The second element is that I service and maintain my vehicles fastidiously and know intimately to the point of knowing them inside out and operating them accordingly.

The final element would be as I’ve become more “experienced” on this earth with three letter statements like AGE or OLD, a certain realization of one’s own mortality comes into play. This often takes the form of ensuring one’s personal safety, all the while enjoying such so called “high risk” activities like skydiving, motorcycle riding, rock climbing and the like.

So ….. we were scheduled to take a 15 hour public bus ride to the port town of La Ceiba to catch a ferry to the island of Roatán. After an “Avocado” group discussion, we all agreed to chip in the $25 USD each to upgrade to as advertised “near new, 2019 mini-coach with individual reclining chairs and air-conditioning throughout”. What turned up was a battle scarred 2 year old Toyota Hi-Ace Coaster bus with two rear bald tires with large chunks of tread missing, in which you could see clear down to the wires of the carcass.

I spoke with our CEO – Sonia, who clearly was not impressed with the defective equipment, which saw the driver usher her over to the offices of the transport company – Berakah, who dispatched a female employee to inform me that “as to the safety of tires in such condition – you don’t understand anything about Honduran tires and roads and as we are a poor country, we can’t just replace stuff for any little reason.“

I responded that tyres being as bald as a monkeys’ arse, with chunks of tread missing and the rags of the carcass showing is anything but minor FFS.

I had to walk away before I blew a gasket and came back 5 minutes to be told that the transport company was not going to replace the vehicle or the tyres, the public bus had left and we still had a ferry to catch. The silence was deafening from the rest of the group and it appeared that the group consensus was that they just wanted to get on the road. So against my better judgement, we loaded the vehicle up and hit the road ½ an hour after our scheduled departure.

2½ hours into the trip, the driver decided to pull into Café de Palo on the outskirts of Quimistán so that he could have breakfast, while the rest of us stood around looking for the Meaning of Life. To describe the place as a travellers’ rest stop would be a stretch, as it appeared the clientele were sales people on service calls, but hey – whatever floats your boat.

Lunch was “truck stop” buffet or bakery goods at the Tio Dolmo in Guaymon about 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the ferry terminal.

We made the Galaxy Wave 4:30 PM service to Dixon Cove on the Roatán, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) off the northern coast of Honduras. My first inkling that trip wouldn’t be all plain sailing, was when the ferry ticket came with a Dramamine tablet. Basically as soon as we left the harbour, the vessel started pitching and rolling for the entire two-hour crossing, through 10-12 foot swells, huge white caps and head winds that would blow a dog of a chain.

The crew were handing out plastic barf bags as soon as they could tear them off the roll and looked to have went through twenty or so paper towel rolls in the process. Most of our group was affected to some degree, but surprisingly this “desert rat” was just fine. I genuinely felt sorry for a lot of the passengers who were obviously excited about this trip, to the point of dressing up in their finest for the occasion, only to be left driving the porcelain bus or laughing at the grass.

We get picked up just on dark-thirty by Neve, our driver who could talk the leg off an iron pot, a get an impromptu town tour of West End, where our hotel – the Seagrape Plantation Resort is located.

At this time, I couldn’t have given two knobs of goat shit for any more “Tommy Tourist” talk. I hadn’t eaten all day and could eat the horse and chase the rider. Add to this that I was as dry as a bastard calf, so within 5 minutes of receiving my room key, I’ve dropped all my gear and I’m off like an Ethiopian after a chicken, grabbed a 1/2 carton of coldies and parked up at the local cholera cart for an absolutely awesome feed of tacos and Gringas. Long day that started on an off note which ended with the whole orchestra in tune.

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COPÁN RUINAS – Copán, HND

I was up early to take a wander around Copán Ruinas and if the truth be told, if you did more than two laps of the Parque Central in 10 minutes, you’d be considered a local. There are a few side streets containing several hotels, small businesses and homes, but you’ll find the place to be more of a village in stature than a town. Its primary aim appears to be supporting and servicing the tourist trade visiting the adjacent Mayan Ruins.

First order of business when I got back to our accommodations was to check up on our El Hefe Avocado – Sonia, as it looked like she’d stubbed a toe and it decided to play up something fierce late yesterday afternoon/evening. After taking a quick look at the injury, from someone who’s had plenty of issues with digits during my rugby career, it looked to have no dislocations or fractures of the toe and no bruising to speak of. As I’m carrying some pretty good anti-inflammatories, in case I have a flare-up with my left ankle, I offered them to Sonia to see if that settles things down. Being the smart woman that she is, she got a second and third opinion of the medical professional kind and was advised to follow what I basically instructed her – rest, ice, elevate & isolate.

SO ….. at the end of all that, I found Sonia to be in great spirits at breakfast, the toe and foot were feeling a whole lot better and the day was full of sunshine. Not more a whole lot more you could do or ask for.

At 8 o’clock, we were met by a local guide to take us over to the Mayan ruins in which we spent most of the morning wandering around the huge site. These ruins are arguably the most intricate of the 22 known Mayan cities that housed over 7 million people throughout Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.

Having previously visited 5 previous Mayan ruins, I would have to say that this site seemingly had more intricately carved artefacts, but ranks well down in the “wow factor” when compared to the others I’ve seen. It’s a small thing, but I was somewhat miffed that the site managers use old photographs and artist impressions to try and express some of the grandeur of the sites that have been fully excavated, rather than allowing the public to see for themselves.

Our guide left us to wander on our own back to town, and with it being a hot morning, we ended up at a local cold stone ice creamery where Cookie Monster ice cream was my lunch of choice. Yeah I know …. but I’m on holidays, so nutritional eating care factor zero!!! Mid-afternoon saw all the “avocados” trundle off to some hot springs for spa treatments, mud masks and a meal, which to me was about as appealing as ex-foliating oneself with a cheese grater.

I decided to finish off David Baldacci’s new Amos Decker series book – Redemption, and then head back to Carnitas Nia Lola for a Happy Hour(s) or three and a pretty decent nosebag.

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COPÁN RUINAS – Copán, HND

I didn’t get much sleep overnight as the local disco, which sounded like they were just across the walkway from me, finally packed it in around 4AM. Got to give them props for their sound system as they are actually located 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) away by boat – fuck it was loud!!!!

All us “Avocados” crew were good to go by 8AM, for our 15 minute ferry transfer, then 6 hour minivan ride into Copán Ruinas, just over the border in Honduras. Well some of us that is …. I took a precursory “pre-start” check of the Hyundai Grace shitbox sauna minivan and found four bald tires, no spare tire and fluid leaking from seemingly every orifice.

We get going and find next to zero seat padding and no air-conditioning in the rear of the vehicle, where I’ve preformed my very best ‘pretzel’ yoga stance & slide, just to get into the freckle numbing seating. Yeah, I was kind of cranky when I told our CEO Sonia that I’d burn this fucken vehicle before the day was out as in all my travels, this was by far the worst set of wheels I’ve sat my arse in. Fair dinkum, you wouldn’t run it in a Shitbox Derby for fear of your mates disowning you.

We got to the Guatemala/Honduras border and I surprised myself for not coming unglued for a couple of reasons. The Guatemalan female Immigration officer was thumbing through my passport and I watched her as she rips the photo page, putting a tear clean into the photo. She looks at me, closes the passport, hands all the passports back to Sonia to distribute them back to all us “Avocados” and then simply shuts up shop and goes and hides in a back office. I make mention of this to Sonia and show her the tear, but there’s not a lot you can do about it apparently.

The Honduran side was not a whole lot better, I had to have my fingerprints taken 3 times, my passport swiped 9 times, but only after I queried the guy as to why he was taking images of our passports with his mobile phone – which I’ve never seen anywhere in my global travels.

The Honduran official gave an explanation of “it’s the process” when Sonia asked him about it. It was at this time that I had to go through the whole fingerprint process another couple of times and watching him manipulate my passport in a manner in which it was not designed or meant for. It was pretty obvious he was just fucking with me, because he could. I was at the point of smacking him in the snout because he fully understood when I said to be gentle on his handling of my passport, which spurred him on to mangle the multi-page document just to prove a point.

I left the border crossing ready to rip someone’s head off and shit down their neck. Yeah, I get that you’re some kind of minimum wage numpty that’s angry at the world for manning a border station on a Sunday afternoon, but there’s no need to fuck with people simply because you think it’s fun to do so.

Anyways, we got into our accommodations at the Plaza Copán Hotel just before the heavens opened up, signalling the start of the rainy season. Dinner was a casual affair in which we took full advantage of the Happy Hours at Carnitas Nia Lola and the food was pretty decent as well.

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RIO DULCE – Izabal, GUA

While all of the girls went for a 2-hour kayak paddle at 5:30 this morning, I took in the sunset from my casa’s porch with a cup of coffee and the on-line edition of the Sydney Morning Herald – I reckon I know who got the better deal.

At 9 bells we were all off on in a hired water taxi to go check out the Río Dulce, locally known as the “Sweet River”. For our first stop we headed inland to Guatemala’s biggest lake – Lake Izabal, and the fortified garrison of Castillo de San Felipe which was originally constructed in 1644.

From there we headed out across Lake El Golfete, towards the Caribbean Sea, stopping off at the Mayan village of Q’eqchi and the limestone caves of Aguas Termales Rio Dulce, before arriving at Livingstone around lunchtime.

Our skipper took us the Happy Fish restaurant to pre-order our lunches and continued on to Playa Capitania for a view out to the Caribbean sea. A great little impromptu fun stop was when I mentioned to Sonia that the local neighbourhood bar had Gallo for $1.90 AUD, so with her being in touch with her Catalana/Aussie self, decided this was the opportune time to settle a bet she had lost me.

Lunch was the local dish – Tapado, a seafood soup of prawns, crab, fish and plantains that is not unlike an Asian Laksa, but without the chilli, curry or noodles. I have to say it was awesome dish to wrap ya laughing gear around none the less.

It took us about an hour to get back to the Hacienda Tijax as the winds had picked up and was causing white caps and choppy conditions on both the lake and Río Dulce. Not that it was a major concern as upon arrival, I simply fell into the pool and called it good for the rest of the day.

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RIO DULCE – Izabal, GUA

Today was one of those days in which any fair dinkum fella looks forward to like a swift kick in the pterodactyls – a 7-hour bus ride through switchback mountain roads, with oncoming drivers’ hell bent on meeting their respective Gods … but only at your personal safety or demise.

Our first “yippee” for the day was when somehow our CEO “Wander Woman” Sonia managed to score yesterday’s 24 seat mini-bus and driver to transport all 6 of us “G Family” members the 320 kilometre (200 mile) drive to Hacienda Tijax on the Río Dulce.

I tell you what, I not the marrying kind … just yet, but if Sonia keeps this up, I’ll let her buy me a cerveza or 10.

A couple of hours in to the trip, we pulled up for a quick 15 minute “leak & peak” in Sanarate, before continuing on to the town of Teculután.

While the rest of the crew dined at the Hotel El Atlantico, I on the other hand had the second “yippee” moment when nothing on the hotel menu struck my fancy, I headed out on to the streets and found Cafetería Y Pupusería El Buen Gusto.

Cafetería Y Pupusería is a local family owned enterprise that served me up Carne Asada with some of the most wicked beans & rice I’ve ever had, plus a fresh cucumber, carrot, lettuce & radish salad, 3 tortillas and bottle of water – all for $4.77 AUD ….. Ab-Fab, loved it, full stop, end of story!!!

From Teculután it was a further 152 kilometres (94 miles) into the docks of Rio Dulce where we transferred to a water taxi for the 15 minute ride to Hacienda Tijax.

I’m so not a big fan of being stuck in a gilded cage, but I have to say I’m loving the accommodations and environs that this place provides – it literally is a cubby house in a rain forest and a welcome change to the hard cityscapes I’ve experienced of late.

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ANTIGUA – Sacatepéquez, GUA

Our return trip across Lake Atitlán to Panjanchel, via La Casa del Mundo seemed to be a lot quicker than the crossing to San Juan La Laguna yesterday. In under ½ and hour we were back at Hotel Posada K’amol B’ey to collect the major pieces of our luggage we stored yesterday.

By 10 AM we had located our 24 seat bus and all six of us were back on the road. We actually made pretty good time to be standing in our hotel – the Hotel Posada De Los Bucaros, back in Antigua in under two hours.

As a group, we again went our separate ways with most of them wanting to check out a macadamia plantation, while our late-comer Coco chuffed off on the Pacaya Volcano afternoon/evening hike. I amused myself with a couple of laps of the town as my broom closet hotel room was as “hot as Hades”. The room is situated in direct sunlight on 3 sides, with nothing to cool it other than a slow moving ceiling fan. You simply could not stay in the room, even with the windows open.

Speaking of hotels, the staff here have been wonderful, but they need to look the size of their clients when assigning the rooms where possible. Here’s a clue folks, I’m 6 foot 1 inches and a 110 kilograms in size and it’s not like I’m gonna run around in the shower to get wet or are any risk of slipping down the drain.

My first room’s shower was so narrow that I literally could not reach around to wash my freckle and had to step out of the shower to wash my legs. Tonight’s room is a lesson in unco-limboing when trying to navigate around the bed or use the bathroom facilities.

Tomorrow were off to the jungles of Rio Dulce, on the edge of the Caribbean Sea for a couple of days.

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SAN JUAN LA LAGUNA – Sololá, GUA

The original plan was to leave Panjanchel around 3:30PM to cross Lake Atitlán by boat and land in San Juan La Laguna for a local family home-stay for the night. Those plans changed when Sonia suggested a stop along the way, which facilitated a 9:30AM departure.

Carved directly from the soaring cliff face, La Casa del Mundo in the adjacent Jaibalito municipality is a 58 kilometre (36 mile) and a 2+ hour drive along winding mountain roads, but for 20 GTQ ($3.80 AUD) each we rode for 15 minutes in one of the local lanchas (regular ferry boats).

The stop ended up being 6 hours long, the views out over the lake made for a stunning lunchtime dining experience and allowed me to complete my Cuba blog entries and get a start on my new David Baldacci book.

Around 3:30PM were met at the dock by another lancha and ferried over to San Juan La Laguna, a town of around 11,200 that would be our stop for the night. This leg would have been 19 kilometres (12 miles) and a 1+ hour drive, but took the lancha only 20 minutes.

We would be down to a group of 5 as Lila took such a shine to La Casa del Mundo that she decided to spend the night and we’ll collect her on the way back to Panjanchel tomorrow.

We were met at the San Juan La Laguna dock by a representative of the local Mayan tourism concern, met our respective home stay family members, then dropped our gear of at the homes and met up at the local park to go on a walk of the town.

We visited the Iglesia Católica church, the Codeas Women’s Weaving Cooperative, Qomaneel Plantas Medicinales, Licor Marrón Chocolate and an art gallery thrown in for good measure.

It was just on sundown as we headed back to our respective home-stays, I dropped my camera off and headed out to do a bit of exploring before dinner. As I was starting to feel like a long-haired friend of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus, I decided to resolve that via 20 minutes with a cutthroat razor in a local barbershop and I feel like a new man – do you know any???

On my meanderings, I ended up way out along the shoreline when I got WhatsApp messages from both Coco and Sonia that dinner was ready. I’d completely forgotten about it and said for them to continue without me, as I was literally miles away. I ended up grabbing a pizza at Restaurante Rostro Maya, which to be honest, was a pretty decent offering. Upon arrival at the house, we got to chatting with Raul and his wife Maria and got to hang out with their 5 year old grandson Francis, who’s taken a shining to me.

No shower for me tonight as when I was heading off to bed, Raul informs me that the city turns the water off between 8:30 PM and 5 AM to conserve water from un-repaired plumbing and water systems. There’s a big lake at the doorstep – skinny dipping anyone???