Hammocks, hammocks and more hammocks...
Trip Start
Mar 09, 2009
1
19
28
Trip End
Ongoing
El Tunco,
La Libertad,
El Salvador
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Finca Ixobel
Finca Ixobel was an oasis of calm, serenity and beauty with just enough doses of madness and insanity, to keep it interesting. It was a hard life falling out of a hammock to eat some amazing home cooked (some home grown) and fresh food and then making the big decision; bed or hammock. I had a fantastic relaxing time writing, sleeping and generally chillaxing. Although there were many activities to do there, like caving, horse riding, river tubing the beauty of the place was that you could do absolutely nothing. On the first day, I and a keen photographer, Tom who was staying there, went with Pablo, who works there, to some nearby caves to take photos of Pablo doing fire poi. It was an amazing privilege to watch Pablo make shapes with the flames by the speed of his arms
More poi
. Pablo, who is originally from Argentina, has been Guatemala for 7 years and working at Finca Ixobel for about 5. He learnt how to do Poi from the internet, there is allegedly a lot of free time, and has now coached and trained most of those that volunteer at the Finca in Poi, so we were entertained most nights with fire dancing.Other than that, the volunteers were really cool people and we had lots of laughs hanging out in hammocks, or chilling by the swimming pond. Lying on a small jetty in the midst of the pond, looking up at the amazing blue sky and watching dragonfly skim across the surface of the water, huge butterflies meander from plant to plant and no sound, I felt like I was in an Edwardian English novel. Our oasis of tranquillity was rudely, but somewhat welcomingly, interrupted by the arrival of 27 allegedly humanitarian aid workers rolled into town (well the Finca) on Wednesday. They were all complete with buzz cuts, tattoos, dog tags and muscles. Ah yes the great US military very unsuccessfully trying to be incognito had arrived. Most of them were knuckle heads who obviously hadn't been in mixed company for awhile and were easy bait, winding them up was fun, sarcasm was flowing (from me) over their heads; but at least it provided some amusement and gossip amongst the staff and volunteers, mentioning no names.
My tree house at Finca Ixobel
Rio Dulce and the Caribbean Coast
I kept saying that I was going to leave tomorrow and then tomorrow came and I didn’t leave. So I changed my tactic and said I wasn’t going to leave and the next day I did, after 6 days. I caught a bus down to Rio Dulce and then a lancha (boat) to another Finca, this time set deep within the jungle. Rio Dulce is a truck/ bus stop and bridge over the actual river Dulce on the route between Flores and Guatemala City, and hasn’t much going and yet along the river there are huge sailboats and gin palaces. I later found out that Rio Dulce is the only, at the moment, hurricane proof place in the Caribbean, so numerous rich Americans, taking advantage of low moorage fees, leave their boats there, when not sailing around the Caribbean. However, the river is beautiful. Huge banks of lush wild jungle creep down, overflowing to frame a wide river which is home to manatees, fish and masses of other animals, including mosquitoes that are out and about not just at night but all day. And on the first day I was eaten alive despite bug spray, they know a good thing when it comes along. After a leisurely couple of hours, we arrived at Finca Tatin, a lovely backpackers set within the jungle on a tributary of the river and full of the obligatory hammocks and little huts accessible via paths cut through the jungle.
The next day I went into Livingston, a town on the Caribbean coast only reached by boat; no roads lead to Livingston. You arrive through a maze of rusting fishing boats past rundown buildings to the main jetty and then walk up a small hill into the main town, competing with motorbikes, cycles and a smattering of taxis, the only cars in town
swimming pond
. It has a very different vibe to the rest of Guatemala, very Caribbean and laid back, well actually that’s not unlike the rest of Guatemala. I wondered around for a couple of hours, sweltering in the midday heat and then returned with the lancha, picking up a few other guests along the way and went back to Finca Tatin for the afternoon, doing a mid river boat transfer into a faster boat with backpacks half way back.That afternoon I and another girl, Angela, from San Fran, took out a double kayak; we didn’t get far along the river until we found an abandoned dock. So we tied up the kayak and jumped into the river. It was warm and the current was really strong, swimming against it you were still going backwards. We were the only ones around; there were no other boats or people. It was amazing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We then paddled a bit further and let the current turn the boat around and take us home. We then sat out on the jetty chatting until the mosquitoes drove us inside.
On the Move
The next morning 3 of us got up at 6 am whilst it was still pouring with rain. The rainy season in the jungle, means that the days are sunny but during the nights the heavens open and there is a constant downpour
Lizzie, Majiu and Zahava
. We took a lancha to Livingston again, which was late setting off and did another mid sea transfer to another boat, whose captain tapped his watch signifying we were late, a first in Guatemala and worthy of a mention. We then bumped over the waves to Puerto Barrios where I caught a luxury bus with a lovely Dutch girl, Rian, to Guatemala City and then onto Antigua. There I met up with Tim, our resident musician, and we went out with another guy Roland. In fact Tim was just talking about me and the crew from Xela when I walked in to the dorm. This caused much amusement. Also staying there was Zahava who I met in Finca Ixobel. Unfortunately the Yellow House where they were staying was full, but opposite was the lovely if somewhat faded Mochilero Hostel. Rooms are set above and around beautiful courtyards, accessible by narrow stone staircases. That night I went out with Tim and Roland to Reilly’s, the Irish bar and ended up dancing on the bar to Beyonce and loads more. It doesn’t really take much to persuade me to get up on the bar, and I would have done it without the temptation of a shot of tequila.
The next day I was on another bus heading to El Salvador. The border crossing was simple and easy and I was in San Salvador by 5 pm
George and poi
. San Salvador is a mini America, mall after fast food restaurant after mall after fast food restaurant. The choice of consumerism is mind boggling, and everyone seems to have something to sell and street stalls offer anything the discerning or not so discerning consumer could want. It seems if you have anything to sell you might as well try to flog it, whether it is crap and tacky plastic dolls, key rings or blow up plastic Pokémons there seems to be a market. Oh and the customer service in shops is of complete contrast to Guatemala. Big smiles and Bienvenida welcome you as you enter and then a rush of words as the sales spiel is given, but I was able to purchase shower gel, something of an anomaly in Guatemala, but don’t worry they did sell soap. El Salvador
San Sal itself is spread out with the safest areas being the rich western suburbs and historic centre. However, there isn’t much to do and trying to find cute and different places to go out was tough. There is a one must; Cafe La Luna north of the Boulevard de los Heroes, where on different nights has different live music. After a couple of days of long bus journeys it was good to chill, try and sleep, but if I wasn’t meeting a friend there, I definitely wouldn’t have stayed more than one or two nights. The friend was the reason I headed here instead of Belize which had been the original idea from Guatemala, but as everything in my life there are no plans and everything is fluid and flexible.
As it was I stayed 3 nights in San Sal and by the last evening I was more than ready to leave and head to the Pacific coast
Jungle
. I am now currently here, writing this blog with the beach at my feet and waves crashing less than 4 – 5 metres from me oh and a beer in my hand. How could I not love my life and know how totally privileged I am? I am currently in El Tunco just outside La Libertad, a bit of a surfing community and a great place to learn to surf, or so I’ve been told as there are nice smallish but frequent waves. I am going to have a lesson tomorrow and see if I can improve on my attempts to surf 3 years ago in Mozambique. The water is warm, the sun is hot, the palm trees, that fringe the beach, still and the beach is black(?!). A weird phenomenon in this part of the world, the Pacific beaches have black sand, so my feet resemble granite, coated in sparkling dark sand. There is a huge smile beaming from my face. And as the sun starts lowering in the sky, more and more surfers are coming out to play; and the sunlight twinkling over the ocean is surreal and magical, almost ghostly as the waves shimmer and shine. I can see me staying here for a while.
El Salvador’s currency is the dollar which takes some getting used to and as a consequence is more expensive than its northern neighbour, or maybe it’s because I’ve been stocking up on shampoo, shower gel etc that it feels more expensive
Entering/ leaving Livingston
. But beers are of course cheap about $1.00 to $1.50, food ranges from $2 – 8, much cheaper if from street stalls, and accommodation is over $10 a night in San Sal look at $25 - 45. Also the concept of hostels is pretty non-existent in San Sal, the main two are grotty and empty, another reason not to stay there too long. I stayed in a cute little hotel for $30 a night with my own bathroom, satellite TV and breakfast included, called Hotel Tazumal.However at El Tunco I am now ensconced in a room for $12 with shared bathroom, in Papayas a hostel strewn with hammocks and a couple of wooden decks that jut out over the small estuary which runs along the side of the main drag in El Tunco. The main drag consists of a couple of hostels, a surf resort, two restaurants, surf shops and a small and basic tienda. It’s simple but sufficient. There is no denying it I am totally happy... Me encanta la playa y mi vida.
