Volcano roasted marshmallows and rockclimbing, Guatemala 22nd-25th November

I spent Sunday morning in Antigua, just generally wandering around and visiting a few of the markets there. It is a very pretty city (perhaps a little artificially clean for the tourists), with nice brightly painted houses. Plenty of artisan things for sale, which I haven't really seen since Peru.The main activity of the day however was in the afternoon, as I went to climb Volcán Pacaya. This is the only active (and it definitely active), volcano near Antigua and stand at 2500m. It takes a couple of hours hiking, first through woodland and then up the barren landscape formed by numerous lava flows. We hiked to just below the summit, where we could actually stand right above an active lava flow! I was a little worried as the solidified lava crust we were standing on didn´t seem that thick and I didn´t really fancy falling into 2000degree molten lava. We got stunning views of the surrounding mountains in the sunset, before getting down to the real business of roasting marshmallows on the lava flow. This was actually kinda tricky as you had to use a stick about 2m long and hold it at a fulls arms length, as the heat from the lava was quite unbearable at close range. Probably the best tasting toasted marshmallows i´ve had though. It got dark while we were on the top, which gave a whole other aspect to the lava as you could literally see it glowing in the cracks beneath your feet! the darkness also made climbing down the scree slope quite exiting, if a little dangerous.Monday was mainly a travel day, getting up at 3.45 to catch the bus to the city of Questzaltenango (but referred to by its Mayan name of Xela). This took a lot longer than expected due to the very poor state of the bus I took. It broke down about halfway there, but we managed to get moving again after about 20mins. However later on in the trip there is a huge hill, where the road climbs over 1000m We made it nearly to the top of this mountain before the bus conked out again. After being stationary for about half an hour the driver manged to find a way of getting us very slowly up the hill. This involved revving the engine then jamming the engine into gear, making the bus leap forward about 10feet before it cut out again. We progresses slowly like this till we got to the crest of the hill and thankfully the rest of the journey was downhill. I spent the afternoon in Xela generally trying to figure out what i`m going to do with my next week and a half or so in Guatemala. I had a stroke of luck in the afternoon however when I ran into a group of 4 Israelis in the hostel. They were talking about doing some rock climbing in the area and I asked if I could join them the next day. We managed to find one of the tour agencies that had a bit of gear we could borrow, as well as a few bits and pieces they had brought with them. However the real adventure was going to be trying to find the crag to climb on. They had read on a website somewhere that there was good climbing near Xela. However the only directions we had was to a junction on one of the roads running out of Xela and then the4 name of a small village on that road, from where we could apparently see where to go. So this morning we set off on a mini adventure to try and find this place. It started with a bit of a run around town, eventually ending up at some random roundabout where apprently we coudl get a bus along the required road. We successfully manged to get dropped off at the junction only about 15mins out of town. From there we started walking the unknown distance up the hill towards the village we`d read about. Fortunately we didn`t have to walk far as we manged to hitch rides on the back of a couple of passing pickup trucks. From the village we then climbed up through a boulder field to what turned out to be obvious crags above the village. However it turns out this was no ordinary mountain, but actually a very religious site for the Mayan people. This meant there were numerous prayer groups scattered amongst the boulder field. Some where quietly praying, but others were working themselves in fairly extreme spiritual states, meaning a lot of shouting and wailing. No one seamed to mind us wandering through and climbing the rocks though. We manged to find a few lines of bolts on the limestone cliff, however as it has obviously only been bolted by some lone enthusiast the lines were incredibly hard. Combined with 6months of non climbing made for some very sore fingers and arms! (that phot is me rubbing my aching fingers) We never actually manged to top out any routes, but still had a fun day at least attempting some F7 and above routes.I ended up walking back down on my own, walking through the boulders and then through the village. It was really nice to get out into the proper Guatemalan countryside, where obviously very few other foreigners go. I manged to get a ride on the back of a pickup all the way back into the city, sharing the open back with an aging Guatemalan carpenter and his family have a chat to them trying to explain where the U.K was! I also learn´t an important leason in checking the age of the driver before you jump in the back, as it when I thanked him after he looked about 12! Tomorrow I am setting off on a 3 day trek to a place called San Pedro on Lago de Atitlàn, which is meant to be very beautiful. After that i`ll head back here, before setting off to climb central America`s highest peak of Tajumulco for a couple for a couple of days on Saturday.
O

Map update 22nd November

A few days in Honduras 19th-22nd November

I had quite an epic travel day on Wednesday, leaving from león at 5am. I took a couple of cellectivos, arriving at the border with Honduras about by about 8.30. Then a short bicycle taxi ride across the border and through the surprisingly quick and efficient border formalities. The i jumped straight onto another couple of buses to the capital Tegucigalpa, just making it onto the last bus of the day to la Ceiba on the north coast. I finally arrived after 17&1/2 hours of travel, having pretty much covered the whole width and height of Honduras. The main reason for going to this part of Honduras was to go to the Bay Islands, however i discovered the next morning that this was not going to be so easy. It turns out the ferry they have can´t deal with any kind of rough weather, so it hardly runs at this time of year(although its meant to go twice a day). I decided not to spend a few days waiting for the ferry to depart, and even then risk getting stuck on the islands for possibly a week! I still had the day in La Ceiba though, so i decided to make the most of it even though it was chucking it down with rain. In the morning i went to visit Robert and his collection of butterflies and other insects. Pretty interesting, with over 10,000 specimens. and also lots of live beasties like rhino beetles and tarantulas crawling about, got to feed some Cockroaches to the tarantula too! In the afternoon I went on a rafting trip with a couple of girls form the u.k. Bigger rapids than in Panama as we did up to gradeV, however decided not to run the last rapid, which at the time was running at over VI (i.e. possible death if you flip or fall out). I did manage to fall out once, however the guide also fell out at the same time so I didn´t feel quite so daft about it.Friday morning, brought another incredibly early start (4.14am), to catch the bus to Copan Ruinas close to the border with Guatemala. I didn´t really have time to do much in the afternoon there, so just wandered around town a bit. Next morning I went to visit the ruins themselves. These are a short walk outside of town and are one of the more important Mayan archaeological sites. It doesn´t have the impressive pyramids of Tikal, the site is mainly famous for the various intricate sculptures on the site. They also have a good example of a ´ball court´ where the Mayan played a game in which they had to keep some kind of leather ball in the air. However it was not really a game, as in the end one of the players was sacrificed!In the afternoon I caught a bus over the border into Guatemala and on the to the city of Antigua.
O

A brief visit to Costa Rica and Nicaragua 12th - 19th of November

So from San José i took a bus the next afternoon to the beach town of Samará. The reason for coming here was to meet Kasey, who you might remember I made friends with on then boat trip in Patagonia and then travelled on with the Pucón (to climb Villarica). She was out spending some time there with her friend Ashley. Samará is a very laid back beach town, with a couple of miles of perfect palm backed beach. A very nice place to relax for a couple of days, which is exactly what I did! although I was staying in a hostel on the beach, Kasey and Ashley had managed to get some pretty nice free accommodation (through a friend) in a kinda resort place at the end of the beach with little villas. The perk of this was that it had one of those classic irregular shaped swimming pools with a palm tree mosaic on the bottom and even a swim up bar! although it was stupidly expensive we couldn´t resist the opportunity to swim up and drink piña coladas, one afternoon. The other full day I was there we walked round the coast a little bit, before retiring back to the pool/beach, again just lazing around reading books etc. That day was Ashley´s birthday however, so we went round a few bars on the beach that evening. Although they happened to have rather comfy deckchairs, which I may have fallen asleep in.... before trying to make my way the 1km or so back along the beach to my hostel at 3am with a high tide, making staying dry rather tricky.
The next morning I got moving again heading towards the border with Nicaragua. Turns out I actually had a sinus infection, so i had to get some anti biotics to get it sorted out. Apart from that it was a fairly uneventful journey to the town of la cruz, about 20km short of the Nicaraguan border. My last bus however was rather packed and I spent the first 10mins literally hanging out of the front door. While I was looking for some food in the evening, I ended up chatting to a couple of guys in wheelchairs. Turns out they were part of the Costa Rican wheelchair basketball team and they were doing a demonstration in the local school that evening. I went to have a watch and as wheel as basketball they also had a game of sitting down volleyball against the school volleyball team.
The next day was one of those days with numerous types of transport. It started off early with a lift to the border, with a border worker and a policeman. Then I had to walk the 1km or so across the border, getting all formalities sorted on the way. Then it was on to one of the local (u.s. school bus) buses to the town of Rivas about an hour up the road. Then I took a pedal taxi across town to try and find an ATM. You feel a bit like royalty as you are sitting in front of the driver. Then a taxi to the port town of San Jorge, on Lake Nicaragua. Then I took a ferry across to Isla Ometepe. This is an island formed by two volcanoes and the Isthmus joining the two, very picturesque. Then I had to take another local bus across the island getting dropped at a junction in the middle of nowhere. From there I hitched a ride on the back of a truck along to a place called Playa Santa Domingo. Unfortunately as it is the end of the rainy season, the level of the lake has risen so much that the beach is several feet under water! We also had a bit of a tropical storm in the afternoon, making any outdoor activities impossible. I had thought about maybe climbing one of the volcano s on the island or going for a cycle trip, but when I woke up the nexbt morning I still didn´t feel 100% with my chest and sinuses and the weather wasn´t too great so I decided to push on to a place called León back on the mainland.
On my first bus on the island I met up with an American guy called Ben who was also heading to León, so we decided to team up for the day on our trip. We had to pass through the capital Managua, and I think we were quite lucky not to get caught up in any riots there. There is a lot of unrest after the recent elections here and our taxi driver took us a long round route, round the outside of the city so we would avoid any trouble. A very wise move in the end, as when we watched the news in the evening we saw the extent of the chaos in the city!
Today I went on a Volcano boarding trip to cerro Negro. This is a very new Volcano, a 600m ashen cone which emerged out of the farmland about 150 years ago. We hauled ourselves, our protective suits and boards to the top, before admiring the viewas and hurling ourselves back down again. You ride these boards like you would a sled on snow, getting speeds of up to 60 or 70kmph! I didn´t make it this fast however as i was wearing my backpack, which dragged in the ash like a break. This resulted in a some pretty large holes in my bag , which have had to be repaired with gaffer tape. A few guys proper wiped out though, and even with the protective suits the razor sharp ash cut up their legs and arms pretty good.
Tomorrow I´m going to head to Honduras, aiming for the bay Islands in a few days.
O

Panama 7th - 11th of November

Of course if you visit Panama, you can't not visit the canal. So this is what I did on Saturday morning, taking the bus out to Miraflores locks. These are the most tourist friendly set of locks, as they have a big museum and viewing platform of the canal itself. I watched a large cargo ship making its way through the lock system (an extremely long process). The most amazing part of this process for me was watching a ship which weighs thousands of tons moving vertically upwards. The movement is quite obvious as the water level rises a couple of feet per minute. In the evening I took an overnight bus to the town of David, close to the border with Costa Rica. It was only a 5 1/2 hour bus ride overnight, but I got very little sleep due to the air conditioning being on full blast turning the bus into a fridge. I arrive din David at 5am on Sunday morning and took a bus in land to the town of Boquete. This town is at about 1000m altitude so has a much more bearable climate than the coastal regions. In the afternoon I set of for a hike up Volcan Baru, which as 3475m is Panama's highest mountain (and only volcano). The plan was to climb near to summit on the first day, camp overnight and then be on the summit for dawn on the Monday. The only way to describe the climb up however is 'brutal', especially with the combined effects of very little sleep, altitude, heavy backpack and still recovering from a bad chest and cold. I did have an amusing encounter on the way up with a stranded 4x4 however. 3 Panamanians Esteban, his son Esteban junior and brother Carlos had managed to get their truck stuck on a massive boulder. It took almost an hour of lifting, jumping and pushing to get it free all of which was keenly photographed by Esteban Junior. It was 7 hours of continuous climbing (gaining around 1700m), before I found somewhere good to camp about 200m below the summit. I had just about enough energy to put my tent up and crawl into my sleeping bag and get to sleep by 8pm! The sky was clear, meaning views in the morning would hopefully be good. However I woke in the morning to hear rain falling on the outside of my tent, when I got outside I could only see about 4 feet in the darkness. I climbed to the top anyway, but what should have been great views stretching to both the pacific ocean and Caribbean sea where instead just thick clouds, and about 30 seconds when the sunrise broke through momentarily. It actually looked surprisingly similar to the view from the top of any Scottish mountain. In the afternoon I travelled back to the city of David, closer to the border with Costa Rica.The next morning I went on a rafting trip on the Rio Chiquiri, which pretty much forms the border with Costa Rica. There where 5 of us on the trip and before we got to the river Kevin (the guy who runs the business) gave us a 45 minute briefing. About 10mins of this was instructions, and the rest was a description of various ways we could break bones and die if we fall out in a rapid. He put the fear into everyone by describing how we might have to break our own ankles or legs to free ourselves if we got trapped underwater! When we got to the raft, our raft captain Freddie, was fortunately much more chilled out. It was a really fun trip actually as we went for about 4km before stopping for lunch, then another 4km after. Two people managed to fall out in one of the first rapids, then Freddie decided to push me over too, so pretty much everyone went swimming at some point. A very scenic river to raft on, as the jungle is overhanging the river for most of the trip.In the afternoon I got dropped at the border crossing, and managed to have a relatively hassle free and quick crossing which is a novelty. I then jumped on a bus for the 7hour ride to San Jose arriving by about 10pm. My bad chest and cold caused me great pain on the way though, as when we crossed a high mountain pass my sinuses couldn't equalise in pressure, causing pretty excruciating pain! Hopefully I'll feel better soon, I plan on spending a few days on the beach here in Costa Rica so that should help.
O

The end of one map......and the start of a new one

Time to turn the map over. Again appologies for the poor quality of image, as i say it is the actual map i have with me and its just so you have a rough idea where i am! remember to click on any photo to get the full size image. O

Colombia`s Caribbean coast 2nd-7th November

The day after getting back from the trek (Sunday 2nd), Ben and I along with Kim, Casey & Colin took a trip into Tayrona national park. The first part of this involves negotiating with the boatmen on the beach a price for taking you on the hour and a half trip round the coast. As we were a group of five we had very good buying power and a Small biding war broke out between them, leading to us getting a pretty good price. We were then sworn to secrecy by our captain not to tell the other passengers on the boat how much we paid!The trip itself is quite fun, round all the bays and headlands in the park. There were lots of flying fish being literally scared out of the water by the passing boat, meaning we got a great display of them flying through the air around the boat.We arrived at a place called Cabo de la San Juan, just as the weather was starting to change for the worse, and managed to get my tent up just before the rain started proper. The park is full of your stereotypical tropical beaches, backed by palm trees and jungle. We spent the first afternoon wandering a few beaches west and playing some baseball with drift wood and coconuts. The next morning Ben and I, went exploring in the opposite direction and found another beautiful beach to generally laze about on. After lunch we caught another boat back to Taganga. However this one only had one rather intermittently working engine, making it a rather slow and tedious stop start journey back.The other 3 left for Bogotà (and ultimately back to Peru) on Monday evening, so I definitely won`t be running into them anymore on my journey having bumpt into them in 4 different countries. On Tuesday Ben and I went did a couple for dives, off an island in back in the national park. Saw plenty of sea life, lots of fish, eels and poisonous jelly fish! In the evening we were going to do a night dive, however the less than perfect weather put a stop to that. On Wednesday morning we did another couple of dives, before getting a bus in the afternoon back to Cartagena (the main coastal city a few hours down the coast). On Thursday morning we we took a trip to the Volcan del Lodo (mud volcano), which is a 15m mound an hour or so north of the city. At the top there is a about a 3x3m pool of mud. It is definitely a very strange experience getting in the mud as it is so thick. Moving around is extremely difficult and you are so buoyant you can stand with your head completely out of the mud without even touching the bottom! In the afternoon we took a wander around Cartagena old town, which has some of the best Colonial buildings in south America. The entire old city is also surrounded by huge walls which still have some of the old cannons in place, mainly to prevent attack from Pirates and the British. It is nice enough just to wander around the old city with its very European architecture, we visited a couple of museums including the gold museum and an inquisition museum displaying all sorts of devised for torturing non believers.On our last morning in Cartagena we visited the old fort of Castillo san Felipe. This huge fortress added to aver the years now occupies an entire hill just outside the old walled city. The hill itself is criss crossed with numerous tunnels, which allow easy communication between its various levels. It is a very impressive defensive structure, that was never taken despite numerous attacks. Even though we went there at 8am, the sun was so hot that it made being out of the shade pretty unbearable, and the tunnels themselves were like a sauna. We retreated back to the hostel by about 10, before heading out to the airport for our afternoon flights. Ben is now flying back to the u.k and I have just arrived in Panama city. Back on my own again now, but really not that long until i get back now at less than 6 weeks.
O

A bit of Indiana Jones and possibly the best trek in South America 28th October - 1st November

Ben and I arrived in Cartagena last Sunday (26th), and travelled north along the coast to a small fishing village called Taganga. We spent a day lazing about on the local beach before setting of on Tuesday on our trek to the Ciudad Perdida (lost city). As well as Ben and myself out group consisted of the 3 Australians (Kim, Colin & Casey), who I have been running into since Patagonia (although this time was planned), two americans Anne and Darren, our guide Louis, his brother Felix and of course a couple of mules. The city lies within the Tayrona national park, which sits right against the Caribbean coast and is a huge mountainous area covered in thick tropical rain forest. The journey started by taking a mini bus along the paved road until the turnoff to a town called El Mamey. From here you would normally take a 4x4, however as it is the rainy season (not that the jungle has a dry season) the road was particularly destroyed that week. This meant a fleet of locals on motorbikes were called upon to drive us the hour or so up the road. What followed was a rather hair raising ride on the back of an off road motorbike, clinging on for dear life. Every so often having to get off as we negotiated deep mud and rivers. In the afternoon we started the trek proper, which was a 4 hour hike to the settlement of Machete Pelao (handle of the machete). There were ominous signs when we realised our guide was going to do this 5 day trek wearing welly boots! when we got to the first river he said we may as well walk straight through, cos it was going to rain soon anyway and we would no longer care! The first couple of hours however were done in the stifling jungle heat and humidity and at after the first really steep climb of an about an hour, we were all having serious doubts about whether we had done the right thing coming on this trek. However, Louis produced a giant watermelon which he carved into slices the size of your forearm with his machete, this combined with the start of the afternoon rain made us all feel much better. As it is rain forest is starts to rain everyday between about 2 and 4, normally lasting for 2-4 hours of heavy downpour. This instantaneously turned most of the paths into rivers and what isn`t a river is a muddy swamp. This is actually surprising fun terrain to trek in, once you are so completely soaked and covered in mud you don`t care, especially watching other people come to grief in their very own mud baths. We arrived in Machete Pelao just as it was getting dark, staying at the house of Louis`s father, who actually runs this particular tour agency. We slept in hammocks hung around the outside of his house, fortunately both under shelter and with decent mosquito nets. hammocks arn`t the most comfortable things to spend the night in however. The next morning we set off on the next leg of our trip, which was in fact only a 3 and a half hour walk. The scenery was stunning though, especially as it is so mountainous, meaning you get these amazing views across to jungle covered mountains and valleys. About half way we stopped at a river, Louis again conveniently producing a Pineapple, while the rest of us jumped into the river without bothering to change any clothes at all. We arrived at our next stop (an open sided hut near the river), about lunchtime. The river nearby was again ideal for swimming, with some fun rapids to jump into and get swept 50m or so down river. We got out just in time before the afternoon rains started, turning the river into a raging torrent of muddy water. The afternoon was spent generally lying about in our hammocks, with all of us asleep by 8pm!The next day we set of early with the city itself out destination. The 3-4 walk to the bottom of the staircase was the most fun yet, as as well as going though the mountain we had to walk up the river valley. This meant wading across the river a total of 9 times, and stopping at various good swimming spots to hurl ourselves from various rocks and waterfalls. The final river crossing lead us to the base of the staircase, almost completely hidden in the trees. We hauled ourselves out and began the rather gruelling 1200 step climb to the city. The city itself was built by the Tayronan Indians (the native people of the region), around 1000 years ago. It is the largest ancient settlement found in the region (only discovered in 1975) covering an area of about 2 square km. It was abandoned and lost when the Spanish arrived 500 years ago.After the first steep climb, we came out onto the first set of terraces which are basically round platforms which would have one day had houses on it. Each terrace supporting one family. We then climbed further to the most picturesque terraces with stunning views out across the jungle. These were probably the centre of the city. The is quite a large military presence at the city itself with various camps spread around the camp and lots of soldiers wandering around with guns. They were originally sent in the 70`s to protect the site from looters, but these days provide general security in the region. Although F.A.R.C are not particularly active in the region, a tour group was kidnapped in 2003 and held for over 3 months. With this in mind, it is quite reassuring to see the military and they are actually quite fun to talk to. They are mainly young guys, who are posited up there for 6 months at a time, meaning they are pretty much bored out of their skulls the whole time. We had brought some letters and magazines with us which were were gratefully received by the soldiers. We spent the night in another basic hut, this time getting to sleep on mattresses on the floor. We had all been looking forward to a night not in hammock, but soon realised this was a mistake. Lying on the floor, means sharing with all the beasties such as scorpions and spiders that prowl around at night! while we were having dinner a bug the size of my fist flew into my face, which was quite an experience. The next day we had a long day trekking all the way back to the place we had stayed on the first night. Howver by this point we had met up with another group at the city and were walking with them. This meant we had 2 guide and porters, this gave them even more of an excuse to generally mess around on the way back. At almost every river crossing they would all clamber around on the rocks finding higher places to jump in from. At one pint Louis are guide disappeared into the trees at one side, only to reemerge a minute later swinging several metres above us on a tree vine. Of course we all wanted a go of this authentic Tarzan experience! In the afternoon we had the heaviest rain yet, turning the path into a complete obstacle course of rivers and mud, but is also made it the best day of the trek by far. The last day we had an easy walk out to El Mamey, where we had lunch before setting off back down to the main road. the previous days rain had done even more damage to the road, meaning we could only take motorbikes half way down before having to get off and walk. The reasons were soon obvious as the road was no longer recognisable as a road as it had been pretty much destroyed by several landslides on the way.So we made it back to Taganga on Saturday evening, all of us agreeing that it was both a highlight of all our trips and also probably one of the best treks in South America!
O