Thomas/Laura Travels

Day 115
4.00am start for bus journey to Antigua Guatemala. Executive Plus, most luxurious coach ever!! Got given breakfast then entered our world for the next 16 hours.

At first we thought we wouldn’t sleep as it sounded as though a grizzly bear was asleep behind us. On turning around it was one of those situations where if you have ever prayed for a good next door neighbour on a long journey this wouldn’t have been your lucky day. We believe her face says it all!

Our first stop was at San Pedro, we sat in the waiting room for our connecting bus to find out we actually had a separate room as we were Executive Plus. On entering there was big leather settees, magazines, free drinks and biscuits and a film showing. 2 hours passed very quickly and we started the second leg of the journey. This time we were given further refreshments, pillow and blankets and more movies. Next stop Copain Ruinas for some lunch then back on to our luxury transport for more refreshments and movies, love it!!! We arrived in Antigua at 9.oopm, dropped our bags at our lovely hostel and headed for a bottle of wine, overlooking the central park of Antigua, beautiful.

Day 104
Broke the Guinness World Record for the highest number of short flights required to get to a not too distant destination today, by taking three flights to get from Managua to El Salvador, from there to San Pedro Sula and onward to La Ceiba, Honduras. Nevertheless, this crazy flight routing seemed much more desirable than the alternative of a 15-hour bus journey with hours spent in passport control, which we anticipated based on our trip from Costa Rica to Nicaragua.
Found out just before leaving Granada that there would be no ferries the next day from La Ceiba to the Bay Islands, because of Semana Santa (Easter weekend). Apparently, Good Friday and New Years are the only days in the calendar during which there is no service, however, the ferry company had unfortunately not found this important enough to mention it on their website. Booked a flight for this 50 km trip instead, as we didn’t want to waste a day on the islands. When we finally arrived in La Ceiba late in the evening, none of the local taxi drivers had ever heard of our hostel, neither did they have any clue as to where the address we had noted down might be. After an hour-long odyssey via dodgy backstreets full of potholes and without lights, we finally decided to ask a friendly local if we could sleep in their hammock on the beach. We built a ‘fort’ with our bags and attempted to somehow get a couple of hours of sleep....to no avail, as strange noises, bird calls and shadows kept us awake for most of the night, until we were picked up by the same taxi driver for our early morning flight.

Day 105-Day 113
Landed in the paradise that is the small island of Roatan after our short flight. After NO hostel at all the night before, we were ecstatic to find that our new home for the coming days was located in a bay so beautiful that it would not have been out of place in any cast-away blockbuster. To make things even better, the best dive companies in the Bay Islands were our immediate neighbours, so that Thomas was looking forward to exploring the second-biggest barrier reef in the world from his doorstep.

Both of us quickly agreed that investing in your own snorkel gear had never been more appropriate than here. Fully kitted out, Laura started to explore the reef and got more and more into her snorkelling. Thomas went for a couple of dives every other day, including an amazing wreck dive in the bluest waters imaginable, as well as unforgettable cave and drift dives amongst surreal cities of coral.
The rest of our days was filled with snorkelling, sun-bathing and simply RELAXING - something we both agreed had often been a little neglected on our trip, in the effort to fit 14 countries into 4 ½ months.

So, the planned 5 days turned into 7, and then into 9. And, at some point, we were seriously contemplating to stay in this paradise for another 3 weeks until the end of our trip, and simply get a flight to Cancun to connect us with our home-bound flight for London.

Day 114
The sad day had come to say goodbye to our Paradise, for now anyway... We boarded the ferry to La Ceiba and on arrival this time our hostel actually existed!!!

Day 100
Boarded our bus to Nicaragua. Spent 7 hours on the bus, of which almost 3 at the border waiting for our passports to be stamped and for paint to dry. Finally, arrived at the bus stop in Rivas, which we nearly missed as they don’t announce anything and the bus stop is actually a lay by at the side of the road. It was indeed a dodgy little town near Nicaragua Lake. Dozens of hostel owners greeted us as soon as we got off the bus to ensure our custom, the most successful one of which ushered us into the aptly named Hospedaje Internacional, which had been highly appraised by our bible, the Lonely Planet Guide, but looked well rough! We had little choice as we’d missed our connection to where we were meant to stay! Outside our bedroom door was a German Shepherd, which guarded us through the night. We ventured out into the town with the only half decent restaurant being that of the Shell petrol station (!). It turned out to be the nicest meal we’ve had with them preparing a special veggie dish for Laura. Always proves to never judge a book!

Day 101
Early morning ferry to Ometempe Island, a beautiful island formed by two volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.

Laura was a space cadet (due to 36 degrees heat and lack of sleep) for most of the morning after we found a lovely hostel on the shore of the lake (for once we hadn’t been able to pre-book anything). Laura then decided that a mountain biking tour up the steep roads between the volcanoes in midday sun would be likely to make her feel better. Incredibly, it DID.
Stopped for water at a small store along the sandy road and met Jorge, the owner and a wonderfully caring man, who was so excited to meet anyone who hasn’t lived all their lives on this island, that he promptly introduced us to his entire family of 5 children and wife. Thomas took some pics of his cute chicks (young chickens, that is!) and after Jorge had preached to his offspring how important it was for anyone to take a life-changing and horizon-broadening journey like ours to get to know different cultures and countries, we set off on the second part of our ridiculously hot journey.
When we finally arrived at the promised beach, Laura was openly disappointed to see the local women wash their laundry on the shore. What an eyesore after some of the beautiful beaches we had been to. Travelled a bit further and found a great beach overlooking one of the volcanoes. A few cocktails later, we got back on our bikes for the long, but now much cooler, ride home.

Day 102
Opted for a walk around the island and explored some almost deserted volcanic beaches, that, as it turned out, we only shared with a couple of completely naked French men. C’est bizarre, les francais! Then taxi into town. Turned out there was not going to be any ferry for the coming 2 hours, so we went for beers at the local cafe owned by a mum and her son. Once we arrived on the mainland, there were no more buses to Granada, our next destination. Oh, the joys and excitement of travelling!
Took a taxi instead. As we had already learnt in the past days, Nicaragua is a country in which all farm animals are allowed to roam around freely. Our taxi ride on the dark country road turned much more exciting than we had bargained for, when our driver suddenly had to choose between hitting a dog or one of two horses that crossed the street as he flew past at 100 km/hour, and, incredibly, managed to find some air in-between so that all lived another day. Arrived in Granada and checked into a beautiful hacienda-style colonial hostel in the heart of town, where we would spend the coming 2 days.

Day 103
Laura woke up suffering under the heat even more than on Ometepe Island a few days earlier. T-Man left the hostel with the self-set mission to save her, any way possible. Returned 20 minutes later with 10kgs of ice and a bucket for his loved one to cool her legs in. She couldn’t have been any more ecstatic!!!

Back to normal body temperature, we did a spot of sightseeing in town, and met a group of middle-aged locals who were as welcoming as all Central Americans we had become accustomed to over the past weeks and promptly invited us to rounds of rum shots on the street at 11am in morning.

Day 97
Ferry from Bocas to the mainland, then taxi to the Panama/Costa Rica border. Border Crossing on the craziest and most vertigo-inducing bridge man has constructed which has to be walked over whilst carrying your luggage. We then waited for an hour for the bus to take us to Puerto Viejo. After discussing how laid back everyone is and that our 12.00pm bus didn’t leave until 13.00 it finally dawned on us that there is an hour difference between Panama and Costa Rica, so it was actually our misunderstanding this time! We arrived in Puerto Viejo after an hour and half of bumpy journey to face the usual dilemma of nobody knowing the location of our booked hostel. After getting scammed by a taxi driver it turns out it was only 100meters down the road. 5 dollars lighter we change into swim gear and head for Playa Negra which is indeed completely black sand, very crazy. Walking back from the beach we spot happy hour at a very cool beach bar so it was to be Mojitos for dinner.

Day 98-99
Depart Puerto Viejo for San Jose. On the way to the minibus, Thomas decides that all of his old wounds had healed well enough now for him to take off all the skin on his big toe, as he accidentally hits a rock, that must have served as a spear tip thousands of years ago. PAIN!!! After Lauras nursing skills on the Galapagos Islands Thomas decides to play doctor himself, whatever!!

Rather boring 6 (instead of the promised 4) hours on the bus should follow to make his day even more enjoyable. To our huge dismay we found out upon our arrival that there were no more bus tickets to be had for the next morning’s service to Nicaragua, which we had planned to take. Made us very happy after wandering the streets of San Jose looking for the bus terminal as nothing in Central America can be booked online(After later reading our city guide it is one of he most dangerous parts of the city and should not be walked around!!!) So an extra night in San Jose to be used for laundry and other housekeeping activities instead. At least we were staying at a beautiful and relaxed chill-out hostel in the heart of San Jose which was cool for some downtime before hitting the road again..

Day 90
After arriving at our pretty hotel overlooking Quito the night before, we got ready for our flight to Panama City, to start our final leg of the world tour: 43 days in Central America. Afternoon flight to Panama. Arrived in this financial metropolis of Latin America and stayed in a cute little hostel called ‘Panama by Luis’, right next to the new (and fancy, and for us oh so unaffordable) Sheraton hotel.

Day 91
Awoke to a pretty tricky situation: there was no further availability at our hostel, which didn’t seem to cause too much concern until we found out it was peak season and none of the hostels had availability. Frantically searching, Thomas scoured the streets and finally came up trumps; we had a place for two nights yeah!! After settling in and consuming some vodka to calm our nerves (Laura’s mainly), we set about exploring Panama.
Went to the famous Casco Viejo district, the old part of town, which resembles a lot Havana, in its heyday. This part of town is the main reason why Panama City is known as the only capital apart from Buenos Aires in Latin America that is NOT dull and ‘miss able’. Visited the Panama Canal Museum, which was, as it turned out, entirely in Spanish. As you can imagine, Laura who loves museums at the best of times, had a fantastic time. When we were about to start our walk back home, the military police started barricading the entire area and didn’t allow us to pass. After some investigation, we found out that the president had decided to give a party for other heads of state that night, which naturally put the entire police force on ‘red alert’. As no taxis were able to get through, we had to continue our way home on foot and found ourselves soon in the dodgiest part of town, with dozens of weird-looking strangers staring at us. Soon after a policeman on motorcycle, who had realised the circumstances we were in, stopped next to us and helped us hail a cab, to ensure we got out of this precarious situation alive and well.
In the evening, we went back to Casco Viejo for a fantastic dinner. As it turned out, the president’s party was still in full flow, which meant that we now found ourselves in the same tricky situation as in the afternoon, but this time IN THE DARK. No learning curve, then. Two couples, consisting of very friendly expats and local businessmen, offered their BMW X5 for a very welcome ride home. Laura immediately fell in love with their car, and announced we should save a few bucks to get one as soon as we got back on our feet financially after this world tour. Attainable goal, then..... ;-)

Day 92
Today we took a local chicken bus, which was very hot and cramped to visit the Panama Canal. We watched a couple of gigantic ships make their way through the 3 locks at Miraflores, where they were lowered 25 metres back down to sea level after their voyage across the canal from the Caribbean. An incredible spectacle! The museum at the visitors’ centre was much more fun for Miss Hartwell this time around, as it was in her mother tongue, unlike the previous day.

Day 93
Final day in Panama City, which we used mainly in order to plan our coming 6 weeks here in Central America and to draw up our (close to) final itinerary for the 7 countries we were going to visit. As it turns out, the planning of this part of the trip as well as the associated hostel bookings is much more challenging than during the earlier parts of our journey, partially due to the obvious language barrier (that Thomas tried to combat with his rudimentary Spanish skills as well as possible), but also due to the fact that none of the hostels appear to be on ‘Hostels.com’ and ‘Hostelworld.com’, our two loyal friends that enabled us to book with live availability of 30,000 hostels globally in all other countries of our trip.
Got on the night bus for our 10-hour journey to Costa Rica at 8:30pm. Shorts and t-shirt meant Thomas was utterly unprepared for the journey on the bus that was cooled down to 16 degrees for reasons beyond anyone’s comprehension.

Day 94
Early morning arrival at our bus’ final destination, just minutes from the ferry to Bocas del Torro, Panama’s most beautiful group of islands. Woke up to hordes of taxi drivers yelling at us to ensure their load to the ferry terminal. Climbed onto our ‘Taxi Nautico’ along with our luggage and enjoyed the ride across the waves to Bocas Town. Had yummy breakfast with a complete stranger, who picked us up at the ferry and enthusiastically recommended to us his favourite place for the most important meal of the day. Checked into our pretty spacious beach cabana, our new home for the coming 3 nights, had an early 10am Piña Colada, and then caught up on some much-deserved sleep after the rough night on the bus.

Some island exploration later that day led us to beautiful beaches and introduced us to their predominant inhabitants, huge BLUE crabs, which were going to frighten the life out off Laura during a walk on the beach later during the night to get to the beach restaurant for dinner.

Day 95
On day 2 in this stunning archipelago we took the water taxi to Red Frog Beach on Bastimentos, a fantastic, wind-swept beach with gigantic waves to play in all day. Had an incredible time and even saw some of the little red poison arrow frogs that lent their name to this beach. Little local kids had collected them in large tropical plant leaves. The smart ones among them found out quickly that adding a little water significantly extended the lifetime of their valuable displays. The less smart ones, had to go and hunt for new frogs every so often...

Day 96
Today we got picked up by water taxi to go and explore the islands of Dolphin Bay, Zapatillas Islands and Hospital Bay. The Central American attitude of taking everything sloooowly takes a little getting used to, as an hour into the trip we stopped for an hour-long break to ensure our guides could eat and drink. Thomas has learnt the ‘counting to ten technique’ to the extremes......We managed to see two playful dolphins jumping out of the water at Dolphin Bay, they were a little too quick to catch on camera though. Loved deserted Zapatillas Island with its pristine beach, which we circumnavigated (on foot) in 40 minutes. Sooo pretty! At Hospital Bay we went snorkelling; however, I think we have been a little spoilt with snorkelling in the Galapagos! Still fun though. In the evening we went into Bocas Town for Happy hour and our final dinner before leaving Panama for Costa Rica.