Hello mundo,
the rainy season finally started and it is raining outside in the Nicaraguan jungle. Enough time for us to Update our blog... ;)
We finished writing while we were in Perquin, the border town to Honduras. Well, until some month ago there was no crossing line for foreigners (Honduras and El Salvador have a complicated relationship and not too many official boarder crossings), even the "mundo solitario" (aka lonley planet) told us that crossing is not possible. Thanks to the new immigration office there was a way - but this was an adventure itself. 5 hours by bus on unpaved roads through the mountain highland. Once we crossed the border we got directly a feeling of what was expecting us in Honduras: No infrastructure at all. During our 10 day stay in Honduras we were 5 days without electricity. Except the main highways that connect the main cities there are no real streets in Honduras. Even if the map tells you there is a road - it´s often hard to spot, even when you are on it...
Anyway, after some hours our bus ride came to an unexpected hold as the rear axle from another bus in front decided that 80 years of work is enough and broke down. Because the streets are very narrow in Honduras it was not possible to pass by - that´s what we thought, but not our bus driver. After some discussions with the other bus driver he tried to pass by on the left side. Next to the tiny sreet there was a profoud abyss from ca 20 meters. First everything went well but after some meters we felt that the bus was drifting sharply to the left. First a bit, than more and more. People in the bus started to scream and we also thought (once more) "this could be the quick end of our journey". As the bus was about to fall to the left down the abyssm the bus driver put down his accelerator and moved the bus sharp to the right (as he passed the first bus). Once more we survived. YUHUUU :D!!
Once we arrived in the first city of Honduras we moved on quiet quickly to "Gracias", an old colonial town, compared to Antigua in Guatemala but without tourism, after I (Roman) got my ass kicked in football against a 9 year old girl we decided to do something fun: So we went to some nice thermal bads in the middle of the forest. It was great to lie in those hot pools looking up and seeing the birds fly over you.
The very next day we travelled to a small town (La Campa) near Gracias. After 20 Kilometer (in Honduras a 2 hour ride) we arrived to do something extraordinary: The most expectular kanopy in whole America: There are 6 zip lines that bring you from a 300 meter high canyon down to the village church. We have to admit that we are normally chickens and prefer a cold beer in a bar than jumping from a 300 meter cliff but we had to do that - incredible. The town is very hard to reach and there is not a lot of tourism (some national though) but if you are in this area one day you have to do that. Here some impressions:
After that, we went on straigt to la Ceiba, the city on the caribean coast - well, not straigth away. First we had to change our bus in San Pedro, the most dangerous city in the world. Here more people get killed than in Bagdad or Damascus. And we realized the situation even before we reached the city. There was a military checkpoint who stopped our bus, military moved in fully equiped with machinguns and ordered all th male in the bus to get out. Once out we had to stand next to each other, legs spreat and our hands against the bus. We got completely searched! In the meantime other military guys went into the bus and asked Carla a million things about our stay in this area. We understand that security is important but to get treated like a criminal is something very disturbing and in our views the wrong way. This won´t help to stop the crime, it just makes people mad as they get treatet badly...
Well, we changed bus in San Pedro and left quite quickly to la Ceiba, where we arrived to the yearly carneval (the biggest party in Honduras). A lot of things happened around the carneval but we don´t want to extend this blog entry to 10 pages so we say: "It was nice!" ;).
In the beginning we where planning to go to a tourism island called "Utila" and then do rafting down a river nearby - instead we celebrated carneval to the full and went to paradise: "Cayos cochinos". Those 30 islands in the caribean are not really affected by tourism so far. We went there with some locals and stayed one night on one of their islands. This was purely amazing and it felt like "Robinson Cruso 2.0". We where the only tourist there on this island/village. They gave us a small room next to the sea and we just enjoyed the beauty of nature (Ok, as all of you know us: ...and the even more beautyfull bottle of ron at night!!!!).
The return trip from those islands where the horror. 2 guys came to pick us up in a small boad (something like the last picture but with a engine). The problem was that the "capitain" was so stoned that he couldn´t even walk. And we had to drive 1,5 hours through open sea. This was the most horrible 1,5 hours in our life. The guy was so druged that he had probems to keep on track and from time to time moved the boat even further away from the coast. He even felt asleep once so we had to wake him up again - we promised ourself not to do something like this again.
Well, we needed 4 days afterwards to go from La Caiba (city in the north) to the Nicaraguan boarder (south). Four interesting days but we want to have to tell you something as well at home later, therefore we move on to Nicaragua ;).
First we went to Somote, a small border town with a beautiful canyon. We passed the canyon, part time walking, art time swimming, part time jumping from 10 meter cliffs into the water.
From there on we went to Esteli, the tabacco town of Nicaragua. We visited some nice waterfalls, went to a cigar factory and enjoed to be in a country with infrastructure again.
Later we will talk more about Nicaragua. At the moment we are in a small town in the jungle where the street stops. Later on we will take a boat to go further in and visit some indigenous villages around here.
All of you a nice week and we hope you enjoy the beginning of the summer (in Europe).
Somos un mundo
the rainy season finally started and it is raining outside in the Nicaraguan jungle. Enough time for us to Update our blog... ;)
We finished writing while we were in Perquin, the border town to Honduras. Well, until some month ago there was no crossing line for foreigners (Honduras and El Salvador have a complicated relationship and not too many official boarder crossings), even the "mundo solitario" (aka lonley planet) told us that crossing is not possible. Thanks to the new immigration office there was a way - but this was an adventure itself. 5 hours by bus on unpaved roads through the mountain highland. Once we crossed the border we got directly a feeling of what was expecting us in Honduras: No infrastructure at all. During our 10 day stay in Honduras we were 5 days without electricity. Except the main highways that connect the main cities there are no real streets in Honduras. Even if the map tells you there is a road - it´s often hard to spot, even when you are on it...
A typical road in honduras
Anyway, after some hours our bus ride came to an unexpected hold as the rear axle from another bus in front decided that 80 years of work is enough and broke down. Because the streets are very narrow in Honduras it was not possible to pass by - that´s what we thought, but not our bus driver. After some discussions with the other bus driver he tried to pass by on the left side. Next to the tiny sreet there was a profoud abyss from ca 20 meters. First everything went well but after some meters we felt that the bus was drifting sharply to the left. First a bit, than more and more. People in the bus started to scream and we also thought (once more) "this could be the quick end of our journey". As the bus was about to fall to the left down the abyssm the bus driver put down his accelerator and moved the bus sharp to the right (as he passed the first bus). Once more we survived. YUHUUU :D!!
Once we arrived in the first city of Honduras we moved on quiet quickly to "Gracias", an old colonial town, compared to Antigua in Guatemala but without tourism, after I (Roman) got my ass kicked in football against a 9 year old girl we decided to do something fun: So we went to some nice thermal bads in the middle of the forest. It was great to lie in those hot pools looking up and seeing the birds fly over you.
Too much stress...
The very next day we travelled to a small town (La Campa) near Gracias. After 20 Kilometer (in Honduras a 2 hour ride) we arrived to do something extraordinary: The most expectular kanopy in whole America: There are 6 zip lines that bring you from a 300 meter high canyon down to the village church. We have to admit that we are normally chickens and prefer a cold beer in a bar than jumping from a 300 meter cliff but we had to do that - incredible. The town is very hard to reach and there is not a lot of tourism (some national though) but if you are in this area one day you have to do that. Here some impressions:
After that, we went on straigt to la Ceiba, the city on the caribean coast - well, not straigth away. First we had to change our bus in San Pedro, the most dangerous city in the world. Here more people get killed than in Bagdad or Damascus. And we realized the situation even before we reached the city. There was a military checkpoint who stopped our bus, military moved in fully equiped with machinguns and ordered all th male in the bus to get out. Once out we had to stand next to each other, legs spreat and our hands against the bus. We got completely searched! In the meantime other military guys went into the bus and asked Carla a million things about our stay in this area. We understand that security is important but to get treated like a criminal is something very disturbing and in our views the wrong way. This won´t help to stop the crime, it just makes people mad as they get treatet badly...
Well, we changed bus in San Pedro and left quite quickly to la Ceiba, where we arrived to the yearly carneval (the biggest party in Honduras). A lot of things happened around the carneval but we don´t want to extend this blog entry to 10 pages so we say: "It was nice!" ;).
In the beginning we where planning to go to a tourism island called "Utila" and then do rafting down a river nearby - instead we celebrated carneval to the full and went to paradise: "Cayos cochinos". Those 30 islands in the caribean are not really affected by tourism so far. We went there with some locals and stayed one night on one of their islands. This was purely amazing and it felt like "Robinson Cruso 2.0". We where the only tourist there on this island/village. They gave us a small room next to the sea and we just enjoyed the beauty of nature (Ok, as all of you know us: ...and the even more beautyfull bottle of ron at night!!!!).
The view from our room
At night - no electricity . And Skip bo is everywhere where we are...
Well, we needed 4 days afterwards to go from La Caiba (city in the north) to the Nicaraguan boarder (south). Four interesting days but we want to have to tell you something as well at home later, therefore we move on to Nicaragua ;).
First we went to Somote, a small border town with a beautiful canyon. We passed the canyon, part time walking, art time swimming, part time jumping from 10 meter cliffs into the water.
Proudly presenting: Our "Spiderman shoes"
From there on we went to Esteli, the tabacco town of Nicaragua. We visited some nice waterfalls, went to a cigar factory and enjoed to be in a country with infrastructure again.
The guy behind Carla is purely enjoing himself...
Later we will talk more about Nicaragua. At the moment we are in a small town in the jungle where the street stops. Later on we will take a boat to go further in and visit some indigenous villages around here.
All of you a nice week and we hope you enjoy the beginning of the summer (in Europe).
Somos un mundo
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