Blog 9 22.05.11

As is often the way with this type of travelling, shortly after arriving in Granada we were seduced by the idea of attending Nicaragua's first festival, 'One big tree'. First came the rather less spontaneous task of finding a 'casa de campana', tent, apparently in Nicaragua, secluding yourself under a peice of canvas  isn't a very commun activity. Eventually, however, after being  offered  a childrens playhouse and an 8 man tent owned by a friends brother, or a brothers friend, we found one, half an hour before our departure. Our journey to the festival took us 5.5 hours, making the 1.5 hours on the poster, one of the first big lies. On arrival, we were greeted by rather less people than we were hoping for this  wild tribal gathering. When we came to putting up our tent, we realised it was in fact agenerous compilation of 3 tents, which we would have been very grateful for had the outer layer not been a good job too small for the inner. This would never have mattered, had the heavens not revealed themselves for the first time since we arrived in Nicaragua. Despite the rain, lack of '20 Djs', a sound system, water and clean, dry clothes, we were not short of good company , therefore having  fun was not an issue.  In short 'One big tree' was the only element of the poster that was not one big lie.
Back in Granada we bided our time waiting for Phoebe's card by cyclng to the lake, lounging by the pool, volunteering at both our hostek and a local afterschool club, celebrating Jess's birthday and reading newly found books, meanwhile forever accompanied by our fellow Bristolian 'Daif' aka principe Harry, Joe and Becky, who we will hopefully encounter at Bestival this summer, Clemens, the German with a better south London accent  than any of the English and Murphy, flourescent pink hat, beard, would admit rounders is better than baseball and american.
After 2 weeks in Granada, emotional farewells and still no card, we decided to carry on with our journey, Northwards to Matagalpa. We finally got our good coffee after visiting a coffee plantation, Selva Negra.
Now we are in Esteli, where the climate is comfortable and the taxi drivers chatty.
Hasta la proxima.

Blog 8 5/05/11

"You didn´t miss the death of Osama Bin Laden did you?"
We find ourselves in Granada, after having just exited the isolated island of Ometepe, where no, there is no internet and yes, we may have missed out on a few things. However lets start at the beginning.
After leaving Tonala we made our way to Leon, where we spent Semana Santa. The weeks activities included, volcano boarding, riding down a 50 degree volcano  on a precarious wooden sledge, yet another activtity that would not be permitted in Britain. We elicited a  certain amount of food envy as  we were finally able to cook our own meals after a couple of weeks of eating rice and beans 3 times a day. We visited what is supposedly Central Americas  best art gallery, attended our very first beach party and painted our volcano boarding instructor´s wall after  he discovered our mural painting skills. For Semana Santa the "Leonistas" create a walkway of brightly coloured sawdust carpets, which they then proceed to stamp over in a procession, carrying religious floats that are followed by a massive generator that keep the fairylights alive. And, of course, we relaxed in hammocks, read and engaged in many a card game with our new Dutch, American and Canadian companions.
Our next stop was San Juan del Sur, where we learnt to surf with our Brazilian instructor Alfredo, who pronounced  every word beginning with an "S" with an "E"... "esurfing". He is reknowned for being a brilliant teacher, and we both stood up many a time, if thats  what you wanted to know. Also got stung by a jellyfish, very glad we didn´t know they were there before we got in.
From San Juan we moved to Isla de Ometepe, an island formed by 2 volcanoes in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua. We stayed in a hostel on an organic eco finca, slept the first night in hammocks, and then migrated uphill to a rustic cabin. Undoubtedly this would have been paradise had it not been filled with uptight and antisocial hippies , who sat around making friendship bracelets all day and got irate everytime we asked them to borrow "fuego para cocinar". We were also joined by our Dutch ally Marieka who we met in San Juan del Sur and Colin from the US who entertained us with stories from his teaching time in South Korea. We climbed our 3rd volcano, Volcan Madera, which took us in total a full 8.5 hours, definitely the hardest by far, but was so rewarding we treated ourselves to a comedor meal afterwards, including absolutely everything they could offer us on the menu.
In Granada  we are back in real beds, under a bugless roof, with no ants to attack us ferociously. We visited a crumbling, derelict but photogenic hospital yesterday, where not many tourists find themselves. Just our cup of tea.
If we leave it this long again I´m sure we will have plenty more stories to fill you in on,
Hasta leugo. 

Blog 7 15/04/11

Mural is complete and we are about to set off to the school for the last time for "elevenzies" with the teachers. Its a shame we are leaving tomorrow as we have settled into our way of life here and we seem to have made another home on this sie of the world.
Went to Chinandega yesterday to buy gifts for the family and the teachers. Bus journey back competes for the worst yet, balancing a boxless cake, defiantly trying to protect it from the perils of the knees and elbows of the overcrowded bus. Hopefully our journey to Leon tomorrow won´t be quite so dramatic.
We are going to miss the family dearly, are contemplating stealing 6 year old Franvir to keepus entertained on the rest of our travels.
Adios Tonala.

Blog 6- I think- 12/04/11

Well, mural is looking colourful as ever. We spent the weekend working on the array of animals, deciding on pop art Julian Opie eyes for childlike effect. Despite being out of school hours, we were still forever surrounded by curious children. One of which tried to charm us into sparing some red, for him to paint his bicycle. On Monday, the children indulged in painting the grand yellow school bus and the pond. Quick coverage of the wall, hands, clothes and each other´s faces was easily achieved. Mural suddenly came together. Looking forward to finishing in the next couple of days and finally being able to answer the cries of ´¿Ya terminado?´ with a ´Si!´ to children and teachers alike.
Still undecided about where to spend the famed Semana Santa. Thinking of heading to Leon for a couple of days at least. Looking forward to an ice cold Nicaraguan beer on arrival. Y e s  P l e a s e.
Hasta Luego!

Blog 5 09/04/11

A couple of days afetr our last post, mural work has begun. After buying our materials in Chinandega, with the invaluable help of lovely Francisco, Wednesday was spent preparing the wall. Slightly more manic than we would have hoped, and a couple of days later now, we have not ceased to be the community´s entertainment. To finalize our design, we enlisted the help of pretty much the whole school, who drew us numerous enchanting scenes for us to base our ideas on. This is possibly the only time we will ever be able to guiltlessly get away with directly copying childrens drawings, particularly the endearing "brocolli trees". Yesterday we finished mappping out our final design on the wall and commenced painting our "grana" green, with the help of the kids, slightly less hectically this time.
Aside from the mural, life is good. We spend our our afternoons retreating from the sweltering heat under the shade of the mango tree in the garden, occaisonally alarmed as they come crashing down, making their presence very much felt.
Elsewhere, village life proves itself to be somewhat extraordinary. We were lying in bed early one evening, when the sound of a motorbike continued past the point when it should have either stopped, or receeded into the distance. Next thing we know, an unknown man has entered our bedroom, with what can only ne described as a large smoke thrower. The rest of the family were in tow, encouraging us to leave, before we were suffocated by the fumes "por los mosquitos". We ran out of the house and were greeted by the alarming scene of tons of smoke without fire, before realising what all the fuss was about and we were therefore the subject of amusement for the family, for a good day or so.
We are sure we will have more dramas to report in a couple of days,
Adios chicos.

Blog 4, 04/04/11

After a thirteen hour journey on Saturday, we are finally in Northern Nicaragua in a tiny village called Tonala, where we will be staying for the next two weeks to paint a mural at the local school. Staying with a family, the father, Francisco, and the mother, Virginia are both teachers at the local secondary school nearby. There are no other travellers here, so we seem to be the talk of the town. Combined with this, after visiting our school to be earlier, we have gained a host of Nicaraguan children who appear to follow us wherever we go. As do teh swarm of mosquitos. We are told we have hit the only 15 days a year where mosquitos are thriving, unlucky is an understatement. Aside from this, and the overbearing heat, we are ready to crack on with the mural. The teachers and children alike at ´La Escuela San Francisco´ have been very welcoming, and we engaged in teaching a hectic Geography lesson this morning.
We are off to Chinandiga tomorrow, to buy our materials with the money we raised back in Bristol with the help pf our friends and family. We have been given the theme of Él Medio Ambiente´, Environment, to keep in mind. Looking forward to brainstorming ideas with the kids and finally getting started!

Blog 3 01/04

Back in Antigua for the last time, on the brink of moving on to Nicaragua early tomorrow morning to commence our mural project in Puerto Morazan. Thought we would get in one last post before the second leg or our journey begins.
From Lanquin, we headed to Rio Dulce with Scott, a fellow volunteer from "El Retiro". We spent a few days hanging out with various Canadians , making mango and avocado salads, visiting hot and cold springs, going on boat trips to the Caribbean locations and cramming into hot, sweaty buses.
We arrived back in Antigua on Sunday to be greeted by some new and some familiar facs. After a couple of days we were back at our old family homestay. We are soaking in the good food and incredible comfort, before we are are thrown into humid and most likely uncomfortable, boiling Nicaragua.
We also experienced our first volcano climb here, Pacaya. We felt like we were on the moon. Definitely an experience to repeat sometime in the near future, and proved the walking boots indispensible.
It is shame we have come to the end of Guatemala, we are going to miss it dearly, but there are new places to explore and new people to meet.
Adios Amigos

Blog 2 20/03

We´ve been here for a month now, a lot has happened since we last blogged. After staying by the lake we moved to another lakeside location, Flores, in the North and this time the water was such that you could actually swim. After a hot and sticky twelve hour journey, we arrived at hostel ´Los Amigos´ where our Antigua friends were staying, much to our surprise. We spent the next few days swimming, eating and drinking  together, with a few others we met along the way. As the week drew to a close we bused up to Tikal, the ancient Mayan ruins and climbed many  a step to experience epic views of the rainforest, from small ledges at the top. A feat that definitely wouldn´t be possible by British health and safety standards.
On Monday we travelled South to Lanquin, where the beautiful waterfalls of Semuc Champey are situated, again we encountered previous people we had met along the way. Currently we are volunteering in ´El Retiro´ hostel, for our food and board, cheap drinks and tours are also thrown in. Again we occupy ourselves eating, drinking, swimming in the river, perfecting card games, scrabble skills and casually hearding poultry into each other´s rooms, to much amusement. Also feeding a certain Canadian marmite, to his intense dissatisfaction.
Yesterday we finally got round to exploring the caves and waterfalls of Semuc Champey, made all the more romantic by the soul source of light being candles, which we held, climbing through cracks and crevices. Slightly impractical when surrounded by gushing water. We then ventured to the Jurassic Park-like jungle and pools. Howler monkeys sound a lot like dinosaurs.
Yet another week has passed, and it´s time to move onwards and Eastwards to Rio Dulce. Tonight, our last night will probably be filled with more drinking, dancing and frolicking.

 Pen-knife coming in handy in Flores

 Watermelon in zoo

 A dip in the lake

Tikal

 

 Locals 

Hasta la vista baby.

Blog 1 07/02

So, we´ve been in Guatemala for two weeks now. Currently, we are in a little town on the edge of Lago de Atitlan called San Pedro de la Laguna, but we´ll start at the beginning.

Antigua was our frst stop, a cobbled street town, a couple of hours west of the capital. We spent two weeks there studying Spanish and making friends, staying with a local family who entertained us with Spanish riddles at the dinner table. In the house there were eight others, some of whom we got on with like a house on fire, others not so much. Our favourites: Brad, a 21 year old Canadian, suprisingly considering the name, who spontaneously left for Guatemala after a family holiday in Mexico, unlikely to return until he really has to. Naomi, a girl from Maryland, US, who pretty much epitomises the ´girl next door´ in the best possible way. Next was Rollo, felow Brit, who was the source of much entertainment throughout our stay. George, a Harvard professor, engaged us in lots of stimulating conversation including the topic of his imminent dragon tattoo. Christian and Melissa, a Canadian couple, this time from vancouver, who we got to know after spending an evening listening to an American expat talk about the state of affairs in Guatemala together. The talk happened at the "Rainbow Cafe", which later became somewhat a favourite.

As well as four hours a day at Spanish school we spent lots of time with them, drinking, eating, dancing, cooking and watching cheap films aquired from the market (varying in standard).

Yesterday we said goodbye to Antigua and our new found friends, and today we find ourselves in San Pedro, after a thoroughly entertaining bus journey with eight hyperactive Israeli guys, playing Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles off their ipod speakers for the benefit of the whole bus. It´s a beautiful setting but we´re realising theres not much to do here, other than sit and eat, or swing inthe hammocks of our hippy hostel we now call home. Oddly, there are a couple of Bristolians here too.

That´s all for now, we´ll try and keep you updated.

Spanish school, Antigua                                                            

 Pastores, a short chicken bus ride from Antigua

 Chicken bus ride, with Bob, Naomi and Rollo

Pheebs and breakfast on the lake.

Lake Atitlan                                          

Hasta Luego!