TravelStream™ news feed for member lucyt on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lucyt en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 22 Jul 2005 21:30:56 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1122075420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1122075420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1122075420/tpod.html Fri, 22 Jul 2005 21:30:56 -0400 Two adventurous months in Central America

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San Jose, Costa Rica

Hello, just done my first week in Costa Rica. It has been wicked!!

Since I last wrote we had another stop in Nicaragua at Isla Ometepete, the largest fresh water Island in the world. The island is made up of 2 volcanoes with land in between. On our free day I climbed the smaller volcano with a few others, it was still massive though! It was really really hard work. Although it was only 6 km to the top it was hardcore uphill, so it took 4.5 hours to get up and then 3.5 hours to get down again as it was sooo steep!! I was completely knackered at the end but I felt I had achieved something so it was worthwhile!!

We had quite an eventful stay on Ometepe. One night most of us ended up getting drunk on tequila at our hotel bar, the night ended with 1 girl passing out, another puking everywhere in her bed and another girl getting feisty and evidently hitting the girl she was sharing a room with!!! The next day was a bit awkward for some of the girls but as I wasn't involved in that bit I found it all quite funny!!

From Ometepe we took a coach to San Jose where some of the group left and another 6 joined. Costa Rica is beautiful and I have to say it is the nicest country weve visited. It is a lot cleaner than its poorer neighbour.

We left San Jose and made our way to the Arenal Volcano, Costa Ricas most active volcano. we stayed at a town called La Fortuna located at the bottom of the volcano. When we got there we took a guided tour round the volcano, saw the lava flows at night, then visited the hot springs on the way back.

The next day I did white water rafting over 45 continuous rapids. It was grade 3-4 and was absolutely wicked. We managed to flip the raft once which was pretty scary, none of us got hurt so it was all good! Have lots of photos from this!

From La Fortuna we headed to Montevede Cloud Forest. We visited the rainforest here and then did a canopy tour. This was not just any canopy tour but zip lining. It involved being harnessed to a zip line, then whizzing down over the top the canopy, it was so much fun!! In total we did 19 of these and a Tarzan swing. This was the scariest of all as my belly went as I leap of the platform and although i was harnessed on I thought I was gonna die..but I survived and wanna do it again!!

Today we have just left Manuel Antonio which is on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The beaches were beautiful and the surf was great so we sunbathed and body boarded all day yesterday.

Tomorrow we leave San Jose and head to Tortugero National Park. Its turtle laying season so hopefully i'll see turtles laying eggs on the beach at night. Cant wait!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1121033460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1121033460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1121033460/tpod.html Mon, 11 Jul 2005 16:36:26 -0400 Two adventurous months in Central America

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Grenada, Nicaragua

Hello All!

All is well! We've travelled further south now to reach Nicaragua. We're staying at the colonial town of Grenada which is situated next to Lake Nicaragua. Since we reach here we've had a fantastic week, the highlight being the bay island of Roatan. I shall tell you more about this in a sec!

Thursday 30th June we arrive in Antigua where we dropped off the some of the group and pick up some more new guys, there have been the hard core few who have stayed on! In Antigua we took a day trip to the nearby Volcan Pacaya, which we climbed. As it was active we didn't hike right to the top, however we walked through the old lava flows which was pretty cool! The walk ended up being about 4 hours, the best bit of which was running down the side of the volcano in ankle deep scree! got some great photos of this!!

From Antigua, Guatemala, we crossed the border into Honduras, to stay at the town of Copan and visit the Copan ruins, the last Mayan ruins of the tour. The local guide made the tour of the site interesting but after quite a few Mayan sites now, I think I've had enough!! At Copan I also did horse riding with some others up to a hillside village. This was a good laugh although I did managed to get myself the oddest horse who I thought was gonna buck at any moment....quite a experience!

Survided the horse ride and we moved on to Tela on the Carribean coast. This town was the old hub of Honduras's previous banana export industry, a lively city in the day but we were warned not to venture out drinking as night as it was very dodge!! We thought it was a bit odd as we were walking back along the beach from a hotel where we had had lunch and there was a group of about 30, 10 year olds who were doing some school sports class. They were all standing on each others shoulders but fell down when Kinal, Arma and I walked by, they then all started crowding round us and heckling...didn't fell really threatened but it lead us to think what were their older brothers like... The sky movies in our rooms ended up being our nights entertainment!

The next day we left Tela and took a 2 hour ferry ride to the fantastic Honduran Carribean island of Roatan...it was absolutely beautiful, even better than Caye Caulker in Belize. Much bigger too, with mountains and some rainforest. The most important bit however, were beautiful coral white sandy beaches and great bars with even better cocktails! We were on Roatan for a total of 3 nights. We didn't really do that much apart from snorkeling and sunbathing but it was heaven. The only hellish bit was the bloody sand flies. Left the beach on the first day with 30 all over my back and legs. I couldn't actually feel them, not even the bite, so wasn't bothered until the next morning when I had the itchiest back eva! The beach was not so appealing that day but did it anyway and had the ingenious plan of hiring sun loungers and sleeping on them in the water....no more bites for me...just a great tan!

Roatan has been the best place so far for night life...we had such a wicked time in the evenings. It was really cool cos everyone staying at Westend, went to the same 3 bars each evening...starting off at the sunset bar, moving onto twisted toucan after that the black pearl. There were lots of men about as well who were always will to buy us drinks...even better!

We didn't want to leave Roatan as we've had to undertake some mammoth travelling days. First was a 7 hour journey to the capital of Honduras, Telgucigalpa. Didn't see much here apart from Pizza Hut! Then we had another 7 hour journey to the capital of Nicuagra, Managua. This city was a bit dodge too so we visited the mall, did some shopping and watched Mr and Mrs Smith at the cinema...loved it!

So 1 hours bus from Mangua and we're here in Grenada....so..thats all folk's!

Hope everyones safe and well.
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Antigua, Guatemala

Hello...I'm back in Antigua, Guatemala!

Had a great 10 days since I last wrote. We've done a lot more travelling this time, a few 9 hour days on a Mexican coach...wasn't too bad though as they have air con and films! At Cancun some more folks joined us. Different bunch of people....and they have all been lots of fun!

We left Canun and visited a couple more Mayan sites, the first was Chichen Itza a really touristic Mayan site. The second was Palenque. This site had been well restored and looked after and the Mexican tour guide who took us round was really interesting.

In the afternoon of the Palenque tour we visited Agua Azul, these were massive waterfalls, unfortunately it has been raining a lot recently so the waterfalls weren't quite so blue...more of a muddy brown....we just had to imagine!!

From there we headed up into the Mexican Mountains through the Lacadon cloud forest to San Cristobal. As we were checking into the hotel, I saw Becca and Simon from Uni walking past the window. Spoke to them briefly as they were just leaving San Cristobal and heading up through Mexico to the US...its a small world!

San Cristobal was also the town where I celebrated my BIRTHDAY! During the day we all went on a speed boat ride through Canyon Sumidero which had 1000ft cliffs. Saw some crocodiles and lots of birds...taken a great photo of some Pelicans for you Trevor! In the evening we had a rum and tequila cocktail party in my honor...lethal!! It was wicked fun....got quite drunk - no surprises there! San Cristobal was quite a lively town so we all went out clubbing after...didn't quite make the salsa dancing though.

The next day with a slight hangover we took a Chaipan Indian village tour. This was extremely interesting...one of the most fascinating tours so far. We visited the villages of Chamula and Zinacantan. They are not small bout 60,000 people in each and even though the villages are only a few miles apart, each village has their own Mayan language, neither can understand each other with Spanish the common language. The religion is similar though, a cross between traditional Mayan religion (this includes sacrificing chickens, making offerings of corn to the gods) and the catholic religion. They also have their own way of law. Criminals can only be put in prison for max 3 days, if they can't pay the fine then they have to become unpaid police offices but the lowest police officers, in that they have to wash the prison floors and police religious festivals. They also believe in lots of random things such as drinking cola is good as you burp and burping is good as it expels the evil spirt, so they also take offerings of cola to the their churches...very strange! Kids don't have to go to school so the literacy rate is pretty low. In the whole of Mexico there are 12 million Mayans, still wearing traditional dress, living in basic conditions. I didn't know any of this before I came and had the stereo type of Mexicans in Somberos, downing tequila...its opened my eyes!!

Now we've crossed the border again and we're back in Guatemala. On the way to Antigua we stopped off at Lake Atitlan. A lake surrounded by 3 volcanoes. We all went on a mountain bike ride here. Lots harder than we thought....lots of steep hills, hard work cycling up but great fun riding down!! In the afternoon we sunbathed as the weather was beautiful....the sun has come out at last, after a week of mostly clouds and rain!

Thats it so far. Five people are leaving our group of 15 and we have 6 more joining and a new rookie tour leader...its a guy this time...hopefully he'll be lots of fun!

I've uploaded some photos for this leg so check them out. Adios amigos!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1119193560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1119193560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1119193560/tpod.html Tue, 21 Jun 2005 18:06:16 -0400 Two adventurous months in Central America

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Cancun, Mexico

Hello everybody!!

Its been a while since Ive email now so Ive got lots to tell! Im having a fantastic time..cant believe that 10days has passed now. We've arrived in Cancun in Mexico. 15 people from our tour are leaving.. just 3 of us left...Alex, Sharon and I...there both doing the long tour with me. Later on this eve we get to meet the new people that will be joining us from here through Mexico and back to Antigua in Guatemala.

Its been quite a hectic but fantastic few days. We left Flores at 6am on Monday and took a 6 hour minibus ride to Tikal the largest Mayan site on our tour. It was amazing the Mayan temples were massive...in my pictures I look like a small dot compared to them. This site was where bits of the 6th Episode of Star Wars was filmed. Ill try and upload a some pictures soon and then all you star Wars geeks will know what Im talking about!! At the site we had a local guide who give us a 5 hour tour...told us about Mayan culture and he also knew all about the animals there and coax a taranchalar out of its hole in the ground so we all got a pic...Ill blow this bad boy up for u Sam!!!

After the tour we had a 2 hour drive to the Belize border. We got our passports stamped and got a short taxi ride to our hotel in San Ignacio. Our hotel was wicked we had lovely rooms with Sky TV and a Swimming pool...luxury!! They served amazing cocktails, so we all sat round the pool drinking these and deciding which optional activity we were gonna do the next day.

I decided to do the Achtun Muknal Stone Sucuplure Cave tour with 5 others....it was wicked!! We managed to persuade the tour company to add an extra bit onto the caving and that was to absail down a 120ft drop into the cave. I was petrified as I had never absailed but the experience was amazing and I wanna do it again!! Once we got into the cave we had to wade through water up to our necks to the dry cave where all the pottery was that the Mayans had left as offerings to the gods in 600AD. There was so much of it. We had to climb up the dry cave in just our socks so that we wouldnt step on any of the pottery and break it. It was really strange rock climbing in socks!! After walking passed all this pottery at the end of a cave was the bones of a womans body who had been sacrificed...it was quite spooky!!!

On Wednesday we left San Ignacio and made our way to Belize city...it only took 2 hours and we were at the coast. We then got a water taxi ride for 45 mins to Caye Caulker....a small island only 8 km long....the moto on the island is GO SLOW...so it was lovely and relaxing!! there are no cars on the island and the streets are all sandy! Our hotel was located on the beach and before it got dark we went to the bar at the end of the island...drank really strong cocktails and watched the sunset....beautiful!!

The next day some of us decided to do a full days snorkling...a guide took us in a speed boat to 3 reef sites. One was Shark Ray ally...here we swam with loads of obviously harmless sharks, sting rays and other big fish. We also saw lots of brightly coloured fish and at the last place there were Manatees (sea cows) which we swam with.....we were lucky cos its only lately that they had been swimming in the area.

On Friday we spend the whole day travelling...passed through the Mexican border and ended at Playa del Carmen which is an hour down the coast from Cancun. the beaches are bright white because of the coral....so we sunbathed and ive done lots of shopping cos the jewelry here is beautiful. Now were in Cancun... last night I tried to meet up with Steve Hewitt my cousin but there was a massive thunderstorm so no one wanted to venture into the hotel zone...so we stayed and listen to the live band at the restaurant...playing amazing Spanish music.

Tomorrow weve got a long travel to Merida in Mexico but today were off it another island where our toucan tour guide Lisa lives and tonight its time to meet all the new guys!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1118615340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1118615340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyt/central-america/1118615340/tpod.html Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:54:50 -0400 Two adventurous months in Central America

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Guatemala City, Guatemala

Well, I arrived safely in Guatemala. Got my transfer from the airport to the hostel I had booked with no problem. Didn´t get kidnapped on the way to Antigua to meet my group, as I had worried about so I was very happy!!

So far the trip has been amazing. I have been here 3 full days and I´ve already done so much. The first day we all met. Ellie, you would be proud...it was like being back in Freshers week... as the hotel was so small everyone was on a Tucan tour so I did the....´Hi my names Lucy´ routine and made friends instantly...works everytime!! Theres 18 of us on the tour, the majority are in their 20-30´s but there are a couple of oldies but they are cool!!

The hotel that we met in Antigua was lovely....we all went out for dinner on the first night. Was impressed with the food as I thought it was gonna be spicy but I ordered some proper guatemalan tortillas with meat, guacamole and refried beans and it wasn´t hot - thank god!!

We left Antigua at 6am yesterday and had a 6 hour minibus ride to Rio Dulce. Our hotel was amazing situated on the side of a lake. We had individual cabins on stilts in the water and a lovely swimming pool, so we sunbathed all afternoon. If I was travelling independently I would never have booked into this extravegance so what a bonus!

Rio Dulce is situated on a lake but has a river that leads to the Carribean coast. We left at 8am this morning and took a speed boat ride to the Ocean and visited a little town on the coast called Livingstone that is inaccessible by road. Everywhere here is so lush and green. There are a few hotels and tourists but mainly its untouched. It is really, really hot though, so going out in the sun midday is a big no no...however the tan is already comming along nicely!!

This afternoon we took another 4 hour minibus ride and we are now in a place called Flores. Its a tiny island situated in another lake. Its not as picturesque as the last place, as every bit of this small island has been built on but its different. Again the hotel is good but we´re not staying here long as we are looking round some Mayan ruins tomorrow in Tikal and then heading to Belize.

If the rest of the trip is this good...I will have a wicked time!!
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Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom

Well, this is the first entry in my travelpod. Only one week to go and I'm off!!

I'm gonna be doing a Tucan Tour for 6 weeks starting in Guatemala and travelling all around Central America. Then I've got 2 weeks in Costa Rica before I fly back via New York for 3 days of shopping and a bit of sightseeing!!

I hope you all enjoy my entries and that you keep in contact and update me with all the goss from back home!
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