Author: Andy

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Hit the streets of La Fortuna at 7:30 in search of breakfast, easy to find as we’re going to the same place as yesterday. This time I have a bowl of fruit and yogurt. We’ve got an hour before departure time so we have time to try out the best coffee in town – a claim made by Down to Earth Coffee and backed up by TripAdvisor. My cortado is very good, Florence’s latte is a bit too milky.

We’re leaving at 9:00 for the capital San Jose. Due to a quirk of our itinerary this is the first capital we’ll stay in since Mexico City. The journey begins with a long climb through green hills, we pass over a number of rivers in deep wooded valleys. Once we reach the hilltops the views are spectacular, the sky is light cloud, the sun occasionally breaks through to highlight a part of the landscape.

Unfortunately this can’t last and the scenery soon flattens out and becomes more built up. San Jose is a modern built up city of 300,000 inhabitants. This is a bit of shock, we haven’t been anywhere like this since we left Mexico. The hotel is about a mile from the city centre in a nice leafy suburb, just time to drop our bags and head out for our orientation walk. There’s a long pedestrianised street in the centre, this has multiple McDonalds, Starbucks and American trainer outlets. We’re warned to be careful of our belongings and left to explore.

First stop is the Cathedral. Built in 1850, it’s not particularly attractive inside or out. Stop for a quick drink and share a sandwich at the National Theatre cafe, inside this building could be any West End theatre.

Our next stop is one of the highlights of San Jose – the Gold Museum. This museum displays many pieces from pre-Columbian Costa Rica and also explains the background to the society of the time. There were many settlements which traded with other early American peoples from as far away as modern day Mexico and Bolivia. There were however no large cities or buildings like those further north.
The exhibition explains how gold working developed first around 1500bc in the Andes and slowly spread north, each area had its own techniques and designs. The museum has hundreds of gold pieces of all shapes. Not surprisingly security is tight, we’re warned not to photograph the security guards, any baseball caps must be warn backwards – presumably so faces are clear on CCTV.

Walking back to the hotel we notice the walls of what is now the Costa Rica National Museum are full of bullet holes. This was built as a Fort in 1917, the bullets holes are from the civil war of 1948. This lasted 44 days and accounted for over 2,000 lives. It started when the election results were anulled by the government alleging the opposition had won through fraud. A military junta overthrew the government and ran the country for 18 months, disbanding the armed services and introducing a new constitution and elected assembly.

We’d noticed some railway lines down the middle of the main road near the hotel earlier, they were shiny indicating a regular service. We found out why – a noisy old diesel engine chugged up the street blaring its horn, pulling three dusty old carriages. This stops the traffic while it passes. Having been back at the hotel for an hour it seems to be a regular service, hopefully it doesn’t start too early in the morning.

Quetzal Hunting in the Cloud Forest


Thanks to our Guide for this image taken with a phone through a scope.

Early start this morning, leave the hotel at 7:00 for a cloud forest walk. Monteverde where we’re staying is 1,500m above sea level, the cloud forest is only at 1,800m but the flora and fauna are very different.

Our guide is well equipped for the walk with top of the range scope, tripod and North Face clothing – this is how things are in Costa Rica.

There are lots of interesting creatures and plants in the forest but the one thing that everybody wants to see is the Resplendent Quetzal. This bird is one of the most beautiful anywhere, the body is not much larger than a pigeon but the tail feathers of the male can be up to a metre long. They were used by the Aztecs for headdresses for the elite few. The Quetzal is now gone from most areas of Central America and has threatened status. Will we see one? Our chances are about 75%.

The richness of life in the forest is incredible. Our guide shows us one large wild avocado tree, it has about 70 smaller plants living on it. Where a tree has fallen it is soon taken over by a variety of ferns and mosses. The forest is a mixture of primary and secondary. The reserve has grown out of conservation projects started in the 1970s that were concerned about the reduction in wildlife habitat and started buying up agricultural land near to existing forest and replanting. It’s now hard to tell the difference between the two. Over 25% of Costa Rica is protected reserve, the tiny country has 5% of the world’s bio-diversity and over 10% of all butterfly species. The government recognises the importance of this, obviously from an environmental and tourism perspective and puts huge amounts of money into it too.

Our hawk-eyed guide spots an owl asleep in the highest branches, it’s hard to even see it with a naked-eye but it’s clear through the scope.

We are very close to the watershed between the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, the streams here run to the East into the Caribbean. We walk to a waterfall that cascades down the hillside in many small drops.

There are three well-known places to see a Quetzal, the guide scans the canopy above the first one but there’s nothing there.

One bush is full of tiny finches, they take no notice of us and fly very fast across the path looking for insects to eat.

After about an hour and a half we come across a group peering into the tree-tops, there’s a Quetzal up there somewhere. We can just see his turquoise back and some of the long tail, his red front is facing away from us. A little further up the path there’s a better view but still no full-frontal. After a few minutes he flies off – not a great siting but we’ve seen one.

The walk finishes at the Hummingbird Cafe. This has a number of nectar feeders set up around the verandah. The tiny birds fly all around us, you can hear a small buzz from their wings as they pass. The largest here weighs about 60g, the smallest only 12g, their wings beat up to 60 times a second. They are the only bird that has muscle in their chest that allows their wings to beat in a circular motion allowing them to hover absolutely still in the air. There are many different colours, as the light changes their glow iridescently. I could happily watch them – and try and photograph them – all day but our transport is waiting. We’re dropped in town for breakfast which has now turned into lunch.

We have no plans for the afternoon so decide to visit the Frog Centre. Costa Rica is famous for its frogs but they are very hard to see in the wild so this is our best chance. We can walk round on our own or have a guide – even within fairly small enclosures the frogs are very hard to see so the guide is worthwhile. The frogs and toads vary in size from 12cm long down to just 2-3cm for the tiniest. They come in many colours – the brightest has a bright red top and blue legs but we can only see his head. It’s not like seeing them in the wild but worthwhile all the same.

We had hoped to venture out of town to find a viewpoint to watch the sunset but it’s grey and rainy as the afternoon ends so nothing happening there.

Pizza and wine for dinner, not so traditional but Costa Rica are playing El Salvador on the tv in corner which keeps it local.

Costa Rica – Pura Vida

Lazy start to the day in our luxury suite, well our very nice room anyway, no need for an alarm. Start with a coffee in bed thanks to ‘room service’ – i.ee me. Breakfast at about 8:30, there are hummingbirds buzzing around outside the window. We have a fairly standard rice and beans with scrambeld eggs and some slices of fruit.

Florence is zip-lining this morning – on the longest line in Latin America, I’m continuing the lazy start to the day, write a few e-mails, book a holiday etc.

The hotel garden is full with birds of many colours, they leave out fruit on a bird table and birds of all colours and hues descend to eat it. There is a pecking order, the woodpecker is at the top, the little yellow ones near the bottom.

Wander down to a cafe in town for a coffee about midday, research on Costa Rican coffee of course, edit some photos until Florence is back, she is buzzing and slightly shaken but all in one piece.

Florence has this to say about zip-lining:

“I think the worst thing you can do is over-think it. I booked this last night and it played on my mind… right until it was my turn to go.

Andy and I did dare each other to do things that were out of our comfort zone on this trip, and this certainly was one of mine.

If you’re into zip-lining – or if you’ve ever thought about giving it a go, this is the place to do it. The staff are friendly and helpful; and the course certainly gets the adrenalin pumping! The key to it is just to go with it, and trust the equipment.

After being geared up, we had a safety and instruction briefing. It was only a short walk to the first zip-line – a short one to get us started, and the lowest too (they build up from there on). The second line is a bit longer, and the nerves kicked in a bit. After walking on a wobbly rope bridge, the next challenge was the short rappel, straight down from the top of a tree. I initially refused to do it but built up the courage to do a slow one… and felt my heart jumping out of my body.

I had to be ‘rescued’ during the longest zip-line (1,590 meters) as the wind had picked up, and a strong burst stopped me in my tracks.

Aware that the option to drop out at any stage was available to me, I pushed myself. I did the seven zip-lines (where you’re sitting in your harness), one short rappel and the two superman zip-lines (where you’re literally in the flying position). I had enjoyed my experience and was happy to leave it there. The views were stunning, the feeling of wind on your face, of being out of control, the feeling of flying… yes, that was one of the most challenging things I have ever done, and certainly the most exhilarating.

You can check out some general pictures on 100% Adventura’s website.”

Time for lunch – poached eggs and fried potatoes for Florence, mozzarella, tomato and pesto pitta for me – very tasty.

The town we’re in is based around the adventure travel business, there’s a small central square surrounded by shops, restaurants and travel agents. It’s built on the side of a hill so nothing is flat. Check out a few souvenir shops but nothing is grabbing us, wander back up the hill to the hotel and wile away a few hours until our next outing.

5:30 is time for our night walk, a couple of hours in the forest looking for creatures that only come out after dark. By the time we get onto the path it’s almost dark, just a red glow in the sky through the trees, soon the stars start to come out. Our guide has amazing vision, it’s hard enough to see things in the day time but he finds us plenty to look at by torch light. First creature is a green Katydid that looks just like a leaf. We were warned before the walk not to touch any trees in the dark, our next siting confirms why, it’s a bright green viper, quite young, about 50cm long, it will grow to up to about 2m. It sits in the tree waiting for passing rodents but its poisonous enough to kill a human. We see a few birds asleep in the trees, they seem totally oblivious to us even when they’re only a few feet away. Scorpions are only visible in UV light, they glow green, by torchlight they’re practically invisible. Then we spot what we’ve all been waiting for – a sloth, the first one is a bit high and it’s hard to telll which part of the bundle of grey-brown fur is which, but soon after we come across a younger one that, for a sloth at least, is being quite active. It slowly moves through the trees about 10m above us, we’re all moving to get the best view from the ground. Strange sloth fact – they come down from the trees once a week for a toilet break. The walk was very enjoyable, there’s quite an atmosphere to a forest at night with wind in the trees and the mystery of darkness just beyond the reach of our torches.

Back to the hotel, no dinner tonight, early night – early start tomorrow.

It’s Getting Hot In Here

Today we’re promised the best day of the trip, at least this two week part of it – a bit of everything around Granada, we’ll see.

Tasty breakfast in the hotel, fruit granola and muesli for me, omelette for Florence who is now 90% recovered from yesterday.

Leave the hotel at 9:00, first stop is the supermarket three minutes later, not sure why so we stay on the bus. Next is the old railway station, this is now a business school but an old steam engine and a couple of carriages remain. Students at the school get most of their fees paid as long as they do community service in the local area for 6 months after graduation.

Granada is on the edge of Lake Nicaragua, the second largest lake in Latin America behind Lake Titikaka. Our next activity is a boat trip on the lake. There are many islands around the edge, some occupied by very poor communities who subsist on what they can catch in the lake and some occupied by luxury houses costing hundreds of thousands. There are many birds and a few monkeys around too.

We stop briefly at the main cemetery – Central America’s oldest and the resting place of six former presidents of Nicaragua. The graves are all mausoleums above ground because of flooding in the area, there is no cremation here. One area is called the boneyard, this is where the remains of people who couldn’t afford a grave were left.

We leave the town behind and head for Laguna de Apoyo, a crater lake in a volcano which last erupted 26,000 years ago. The panoramic view across the crater is spectacular. We move on to a resort on the lake shore, we have over three hours here. This feels too long after we’ve been rushed between sites all morning.

Drink a few cups of coffee, have some lunch, write a few pages of our diaries and watch the comings and goings on the lake and the time passes quickly enough. The resort has a couple of resident green parrots who are very entertaining, they seem to be endlessly bickering like an old married couple.

Stop at a handicraft market, it’s dark inside – we’re told that the whole of Central America is suffering a power cut because of trees falling on some cables in Honduras; this seems entirely plausible.

Final stop, and the highlight by a long way is visit to Masaya Volcano. I’d like to say we hiked for hours to reach the edge of the crater but actually this is one of the few, if not the only active volcano where there’s a road to the edge of the crater. We queue for a while on the main road, there’s a maximum of 60 people allowed at the top at any one time and we’re only allowed fifteen minutes on the crater edge.

Seeing an active volcano has long been on my list of things to do; this was an unexpected surprise here. It’s an incredible site, 70m below us the glowing red lava bubbles and moves around, above it there are clouds of steam and smoke swirling around, lit by the fiery glow from the crater. Fifteen minutes pass in whats feels like seconds – a definite highlight of our trip.

How do you follow that?

When we’re back on the bus our guide Ramon breaks out a gallon container of Macua, the national drink of Nicaragua, a cocktail of rum, guava, lemon and other fruit juices, puts on a party mix from his phone and puts on some flashing lights on the bus. The journey back to the hotel is a surreal mixture of AC\DC, Justin Timberlake and Britney, people are dancing in the aisle. When we pull up outside the hotel there’s still some cocktail left so we convince the driver to drive round a few blocks until it was all gone.

Es Verdad Sandinista

Early night again – we know how to party – so we’re up early. Florence is feeling a bit under the weather so I’m on my own this morning. Go out in search of breakfast but it’s Sunday and nothing is open yet, grab a snack – scrambled eggs, rice and beans – and a coffee in the hotel then meet Henry my guide for a walk around Leon.

Henry starts by telling me that the market next to the hotel is the Mercado Estacion because it’s where the station for train from Managua used to be. The railways became more and more run down during the first half of the last century until the government decided they were too expensive to repair and closed them. Leon streets do have names but nobody uses them, our map has no street names and there are almost no street signs, the locals navigate using churches or other landmarks. One exception is Calle Juan Pablo, named to commemorate the two visits of the former Pope to Leon.

Henry explains that the Nicaraguan diet is generally made up of heavy, starchy food like potatoes, casava and corn – he is a testament to this. We walk through another market, there are tamales – stuffed corn husks or banana leaves – cooking in a vat of dark bubbling liquid, not very appetising to me but he is impressed.

First proper stop is the Heroes and Martyrs monument to those killed by government forces during the revolution. Behind the monument a large mural tells the story of the country from the early meso-americans through the conquistadors, independence from Spain and then Mexico, a letter from the assasin of Anastasio Somoza García, to his mother and the revolution. Every scene shows death, war and destruction. After all this, it finishes with an idealistically upbeat image of two children playing in sylvan surroundings by a lake.

The Sandinista National Liberation Front – FSLN – now a socialist political party took their name from Augusto César Sandino, the leader of the rebellion against the USA backed government of the Somoza dynasty in the early 20th Century. Their red and black flag was adopted after it was used by protestors against the massacre of a number of students; it represented blood and death. The Sandinista played a larger part in the overthrow of the Somoza government in 1979 and assumed power soon afterwards. The stayed in power until 1990 despite the Contras, a right-wing counter revolutionary force backed by Reagan’s USA trying to destabilise them. Daniel Ortega, a former revolutionary leader and prisoner of the Somoza regime was president from 1979 to 1990 and again from 2006 to the present. A fact for the rock-trivia fans – The Clash album Sandinista has the catalogue number FSLN1.

Next stop is Prison 21 – opened in 1921 by the Somoza government and liberated during the revolution. It’s now a museum, there’s a photo in the entrance of a tank on the street outside with a rabble of revolutionaries. The tank is also in the museum – it was second hand from Russia and must have been 30 years old when it arrived. The museum is a strange blend of the horrors of the conditions and the torture prisoners underwent along with a number of almost grotesque figures depicting folkloric tales. The tortures are graphically illustrated on the prison walls, a cell not much bigger than our hotel room held 50 prisoners. The folklore tales include the ‘Headless Priest’, the ‘Pig Witch Woman’ and ‘Grab My Tit Woman’.

Final stop is the art museum. This has grown from the private collection of one of Leon’s wealthiest families, they bought a large house to hold it then had to buy another larger one opposite to hold more. It would take most of a day to do it all justice. There are many highlights from Central American artists I know nothing of along with better known European artists including Braque, Picasso, Sonia Delauney and Henry Moore.

Head back to the hotel to revive Florence and get our bags ready to depart for our next stop, Granada. It’s a two and a half hour drive, the countryside is initially hilly, dry and barren. When we pass the capital, Managua, it becomes flatter and more built up. It seems to be a quirk of this trip that we never visit capital cities, Mexico City is the only one so far.

 

A Pelican’s Life

Early night last night to catch up on sleep so we’re awake about 7:00. Go for a walk on the beach, the sun is already up, there are people surfing and a pair of pelicans are having a paddle.

The pelicans are both recovering from serious injuries and are looked after by the hotel. They have their morning paddle, surf for a bit then retire to a sun shade for the day. One jumped under the poolside shower in the afternoon to cool off, in the evening they go to the kitchen for some fish before retiring for the night.

The hotel also has a project to release turtles to the wild. A lot of the eggs are collected by local fishermen and sold to restaurants for food. The hotel buys a number of them, puts them in the sand on the beach to hatch. They then move them from the beach to the ocean, one of the most hazardous parts of their life. It’s believed that only 1 egg in a 100 develops to an adult turtle, some say far fewer than that. This project aims to improve these odds, they are reseaching and sharing information with other similar projects round the world.

After watching this morning’s batch of turtles being dug up we have a slow breakfast, write diaries for an hour then have a juice. It’s already 10:30 so time for a swim. The water is warm and the waves fun to play in. Strange to think that 1000s of miles across that Ocean are Tahiti and New Zealand where we’ll be in a month or so.

The tough day continues with a coffee and reading in a hammock until it’s time for lunch.

Florence has had enough of doing nothing and goes to a free yoga class. I manage to pass the afternoon lazily until it’s massage time; we were so impressed with yesterday we booked an hour each today.

All too soon it’s sunset and the day is almost over; we’re back to reality with a bump tomorrow – 5am start for a long, long drive to Nicaragua.

War and Peace

A leisurely start this morning, no alarm. The shower is cold only but it’s already quite warm so it’s not too bad. Breakfast at Casa da la Abuela; Google Maps tells us its 232 feet away – it’s a small town!

The cafe is very nice, warm yellow outside, dark and cool inside, decorated with coffee sacks. I have granola, yogurt and fruit and a very good cappuccino.

Fortified by our meal, we’re ready for the sites. The church is brilliant white on the outside but inside it’s got lots of dark wood and a tiled floor, unlike anywhere else we’ve seen. It’s also very long for a small town. A number of houses have a stencil on the wall saying ‘In this house we want a life free from violence against women’. Suchitoto is a very attactive town, cobbled streets and colourful single storey buildings. I’ve never been anywhere so friendly, everybody has time for a smile and to say good morning. Just under the surface however you’re never far from the impact of the civil war.

The start of the El Salvador Civil War is hard to pin down exactly but it was fought from around 1979 until a peace treaty was signed in 1992. The origins were in a revolt by the peasantry against land-owners who paid them very little and treated them poorly. The El Salvador armed forces were armed and trained by the USA. The guerillas armed themselves by stealing – or in some cases even buying arms – from the army. UN Reports say that 75,000 people were killed and an unknown number disappeared.

One of the squares in the town has a number of sculptures made from arms remaining after the war and parts of a helicopter shot down by guerillas. Nearby a former school is now the Art Centre for Peace, they teach art and music to local people and have an exhibition by local artists, there’s a large salsa band practising in one of the rooms.

Time for a cooling drink before heading back to the hotel to prepare for our afternoon hike. This is through a forest in a nature reserve about 15 miles from the town. The forest was the site of a lot of guerilla activity during the civil war. We see the remains of trenches, the grave of an unknown soldier and the site of a guerilla camp. A lot of of knowledge was gained from the viet-cong, the trenches and kitchens that disperse their smoke so as not to be visible from the air are all their designs. The medical facilities in the camp remain in place; a small bamboo operating table with a hook above it for drips, blood etc. Operations were carried out at night by oil lamps.

The highest point of the walk takes us to a viewpoint with a wide vista across the forest, Lake Suchitlan, and a number of volcanoes. We end the hike with a swim under a waterfall, a very nice way to cool down.

We’re told some stories about the war by a former guerrilla, Don Rafael, he’s now 58 and although small looks a formidable fighter. He claims to have been the 11th member of the guerilla forces.

We stop in the village of Cinquera on the way back to Suchitoto to see more war remnants, parts of a helicopter downed by a machine gun and the gun itself. Outside the church there are bomb cases standing up on the lawn.

Back in town we start the evening at El Necio, this is run by a more friendly ex-guerilla. He seems to have a crush on Che Guevara, his bar is covered with pictures of El Commandante, one covers almost a whole wall. I have a Cuba Libre – seems appropriate, the former fighter sings along to Cuban music, he has a good voice.

Return to last night’s restaurant for more papusas, just a small one each tonight – this sets us back $1.50, theyre even better than before as well.

30 Cacao Seeds for a Rabbit

The firecrackers went on until well after midnight.

Leave the hotel around 8:00 this morning, the streets are deserted, warm on the sunny side but the air is still cool. Retrace our steps from last night looking for a recommended cafe for breakfast but they’re not open until 11:00 today. Make our way back towards the Bagel Barn, fingers crossed. On the way we pass the communal laundry areas, we’ve seen a few of these around Guatemala – even when there is a washing machine at home these are used because they are a place to meet and gossip, no-one has started washing yet today however.

Bagel Barn is open – a grilled cheese bagel, spinach and banana smoothie and a strong coffee are a good antidote to last night’s drinks.

Next stop is the Merced Convent ruins, like most of the ruins here this suffered in the 18th Century earthquakes. It was built to withstand strong tremors but still wasn’t strong enough for those huge quakes. The first floor is still standing but the upper stories are almost all missing.

Buy a few gifts and souvenirs in a big tourist shop, they have their own version of Maximon the Mayan god in a shed in the courtyard; the only worshipper today is a local cat.

Most of the sites in town are closed so we end up gazing at ruins through railings.

Sightseeing isn’t working today so we try a few activities instead. First up is chocolate making. Cacao trees were originally from South America but chocolate itself developed from a drink produced in what is now Guatemala as early as 1900BC, it was a drink of Olmec Kings and Priests. The Aztecs took the idea from the Mayans and had to transport the beans from Guatemala overland manually, the beans were used as a currency; among other things 30 beans would buy you a rabbit. The Aztec word Cacahuatl put off the Spanish who changed the word to Chocolade and started exporting the beans back home. Chocolate was soon popular all over Europe. In 1910, William Cadbury convinced a number of British and American producers to stop using beans from plantations that used slaves.

Our class started with a history lesson and then moved onto more practical demonstrations. The cacao beans have to be roasted, dried and fermented before being used, this was done for us but we then ground up the cacao nibs by hand in a pestle and mortar and used the resulting cacao liquor – it is slightly alcoholic  – to make Mayan style chocolate drink, Spanish hot chocolate and chocolate tea from the bean shells. They’re all very tasty, rich and savoury and a long way from the chocolate bars we’re used to. Finally, we used some ready melted dark chocolate to make our own sweets with a number of fillings to choose from: chilli, orange, mint, cardamom among others.

The chocolates will be ready in two hours, in the meantime it’s time for our Salsa lesson. Our teacher is called Victor Hugo. He is very patient and guides us though some basic steps, he finishes with a short demonstration that we video so we can practice later – maybe.

Just time to collect the chocolates before meeting our new guide and group of travelling companions.

Everywhere is quiet in town, we have craft beers from the Antigua Brewing Company to bid farewell to the town and Guatemala. Tomorrow we leave at 4:00am for Honduras.

 

Chicken Buses

We appreciated the benefits of a good night’s sleep today; nine hours last night which made up for a few shorter nights. Tasty breakfast of pitta and hummus, smoothie and coffee, watching hummingbirds feeding on the flowers in the restaurant garden.

8:30 departure back to Antigua – it might take 3, or 4 or 5 hours. We’re stuck behind “chicken” buses for the first fifteen minutes. These buses are old American school buses which are now used as public transport. They are everywhere, they pour out clouds of black smoke, they can go quite quickly when they choose and they appear to rule the roads. They also come in many different colours, they have names painted down the side and they are all slightly different.

The traffic is on our side and we get to Antigua before mid-day and hit the streets to see the sites. The town is busy with visitors, Guatemalan and foreigners, all here to party tonight.

We wander a few random streets, grab a coffee and try Ta’Cools for lunch, share a very good vegetarian taco and a couple of hibiscus juices to cool down. Antigua is 2,000m above sea level so the air is quite cool but the sun is strong so it feels hot. We walk round the bus station to have a close look at some more buses.

Back to the hotel for a quick shower before the big night ahead, by 5pm the central square is already filling up, there’s a band playing outside the cathedral and a strange mixture of people on stilts, people with very large heads and an avocado dancing below them.

We try an ice cream, pineapple and chilli, very nice.

The Galeria de Arte is open until 7pm so we have a look round. The paintings and sculptures are mainly from Central America, they are exuberant and colourful and reflect the personality of the people and the landscapes we’ve seen. It feels like art that has developed away from most European influences, we don’t like it all but it’s refreshing to see so many new styles.

The volcanoes around the town out on a good show for New Year’s Eve, throwing out smoke into the sunset.

Enough culture, it’s time to party – Cafe No Se is one of the coolest bars I’ve ever seen, it’s very dark, candle-lit, there are small doors off the main room leading to little corners to sit in – one has a sign over the door, which is about 4 feet high, saying Mescal bar – minimum 2 shots. There are images of Maximon, the Mayan god we saw yesterday, also a poster saying “Trump eres un pendejo” – ‘Trump is an @***hole’. The soundtrack is a mixture of sixties rock and blues. We have a couple of Mescal Mules and toast the New Year that has just turned in London, very tasty.

Back on the street we head back to the hotel to meet the group for our last night meal, distracted by a ruined, floodlit church, it’s slowly being restored, mass is just beginning so it’s clearly active. The Central Square is now much more active, more music and dancing – a few people appear to be dressed in fireworks which makes some of the crowd move rather quickly.

My ears are ringing from a fire cracker that explodes in the street very close to us.

We have a quick drink with the group then head off to try another bar we spotted earlier – Por Que No? – we can just get to the bar to get a drink but have to drink it on the pavement, the bar is tiny and very atmospheric. We get chatting to a brother and sister from Singapore and get some tips for later, much later, in our trip.

Happy New Year!

Colourful and Vibrant Chichi

We’re up early to have a quick look round the town before it gets going. We’re lucky to get a look in another ruined church while it’s being tidied up from a wedding yesterday; when we pass it a few minutes later, it is shut. Some nuns are out for their morning stroll; people looking for breakfast. We settle on Bagel Barn – they claim to have the best bagels in the country, they’re certainly very good.

We’re on the road again at 9:00 – a 3.5 hour drive to Chichicastenango ahead of us. Chichicastenango is a small town in the hills, it’s main attraction is a large market which sells all sorts of items in traditional cloths and colours, primarily for tourists, as well as clothes and food for locals.

The first site we visit is the multi-coloured graveyard, nothing sombre about this place – everything is painted in clashing primary colours.

We walk through the market place. The stalls are piled high with bags, trousers, ipad covers, ponchos, belts and many other things in bright traditonal patterns.

We stop for a quick lunch – it takes ages to come and has ham instead of cheese in the omelette so we just make do with the side dish of guacamole.

There are two churches in the corner of the market square, these are built on the site of older Mayan temples. Mayan people still enact rituals on the church steps which look like they may be remains of the older buildings. They wave large incense burners and chant incantations to who knows which gods.

Tonight we’re staying with a family in San Jorge la Laguna. It’s recommended we buy some food for them from the supermarket – so we do!

We only have three hours in Chichicastenango – not nearly enough, we’re soon on the way to San Jorge with a quick stop to watch the sunset over Lake Atitlan on the way.

San Jorge is compact town of 4,000 cascading down the hillside towards the lake, it has one church and one bar, we pay a brief visit to both.

We’re introduced to Christiana, she takes us back to her house and shows us to our room. She is quiet but friendly and helpful, she shows me how to make tortillas, I try it but it isn’t as easy as it looks – two of my three make it to the table, one is discretely discarded.

Dinner is simple but tasty, rice, potatoes and green beans. There is also a very hot homemade chilli sauce – Christiana and her son are amused by the large spoonfuls we take, it’s hot but bearable.

None of the family speak much English, their first language is Kaqchiquel, one of 22 Mayan languages still spoken in Guatemala. They also speak some Spanish which they use to communicate with speakers of the other languages. Conversation is tricky but we get by between us with a bit of Spanish, a phrase book and the Google Translate app.