Food Glorious Food

A brief return to Antigua for onward travel gives us a reunion with Kerry, Niels, Kon and his friend Aggie who has joined him. Our next move is to El Salvador via Guatemala City. Apart from being scammed by a money changer at the border for $30 all goes well!

Our first stop in El Salvador is Juayua (why ooh ah) a lovely town and we both get a good feeling for it. We're rooming with Dona Mercedes in a pretty swank house for $9 each a night. Unfortunately Adrian has a case of 'somewhere foreign belly' but Dona Mercedes takes him under her wing and he's soon on the way to recovery. 

Luckily for us, Juayua is hosting a Feria Gastronica this weekend and they are just putting the marquees up as we arrive. Its food all the way. You can sample grilled frog, roast iguana amongst many other things. The food is delicious, the whole town seems to be out enjoying the festivities.

We also visit the local waterfalls, a long walk down but an even longer one back up in about 85 degrees. Unfortunately, whilst the falls are beautiful, they are a local beauty spot and sadly in Central America you don't take the trash home and there are no trash cans, so its littered all over.

I feel quite sad when it is time to leave Juayua as it a place I could live, if I had to live in Central America. Mind you, its pretty pricey, they've got the dollar and that makes a huge difference. We're told that it was good for the country when it first happened but that now everything is too expensive and a lot of the country lives in poverty. There isn't too much sign of that here though.

From Juayua we head to Lago Coatepeque, it takes 3 chicken buses and looks divine from up the hill, sadly when we get there its another beauty spot that takes a hammering from the trash. Our hostel is mank and we drown our sorrows, in beer not the lake! The view from the bar was pretty good though! The consensus is that we'll move on tomorrow. 

Lago Atitlan

The one place I had highlighted in Guatemala is Lago Atitlan, an enormous lake formed by a volcanic eruption. From Antigua we take the chicken bus to Panajachel (known to all as Pana). The journey is supposed to take 3 hours. Just one hour from our destination we grind to a halt, 500 yards down the road a massive landslide has just occurred. The empanadas man is doing a roaring trade - mind you they were delicious. It takes two and a half hours to dig out one side of the road and less than two minutes for us to go through the landslide. A close call but not our numbers out of the hat today. The rest of the journey is without incident and makes for a bonding session with an Australian couple, which involves teaching them to play backgammon.

In Pana, a short walk takes us to the boat. Everyone goes to San Pedro we however, are going to Santa Cruz La Laguna, the last village on the lake that cannot be reached by car. There are two hostels, one either side of the jetty. La Arca de Noa is to be our home for the next few days. Our room is unbelievable, cheap but with a view to die for, right over the lake to the volcano. The village is about 70 metres up and the road is steep. During our stay we walk up to the village for lunch at Cecap, a project giving skills to the indigenous people in the village. They run a cafe, staffed by pupils of the project and lunch is delicious, stir fried egg plant with chicken (cluck cluck) served Asian style with rice. We also eat a meal at La Iguana Perdida (the lost iguana) which is the hostel next door, it's three courses which we are definitely not used to but delicious. The Iguana has a happy hour between 6 and 7 (beer about 80p a bottle) so we can dip into that and then head back next door to the peace and tranquility of Noah's ark.

We take a boat trip to San Pedro and decide we haven't missed much. As usual the park is beautiful, flowers everywhere and an enormous statue of, I think, San Pedro. We later hear from Kerry that it wasn't great.

Our return to Antigua for onward travel to Guatemala City is much more straight forward, boat to Pana, bus to Los Encuentros change to Chimiltenango and then another change to Antigua, it costs less than the journey out, no landslides and a very happy Fox. Our last night in Guatemala is spent in the Club Sandwich restaurant with Niels, Kerry, Kornelius and his friend Aggie who has joined him. We all leave Panama within a few days of each other so plan to regroup for a meal and swap stories before heading our separate ways.

Antigua

Antigua is a beautiful town, claimed to be the prettiest town in Central America. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town was the Guatemalan capital until it was moved following earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It was abandoned sometime after 1773 for several years but was slowly repopulated in the 19th ccentury. Whilst the town is being rebuilt, the Cathedral and several churches are still, and will remain so, in the same state as left by the devastating natural disasters.

Our hotel is the Jardin de Lolita, and her garden is beautiful. Roses, strelitzia, bourgainvillia are blooming everywhere and the lemon tree is full of fruit. There are cages dotted around the garden with green parrots and toucans in. One of the parrots whistles whilst another turns upside down and says "hola".

Above the town is a cross on a hillside with an amazing panoramic view of the town and the Volcano Aqua behind it. We took a tour with the police (recommended for safety) up to the cross it was absolutely breathtaking.

 The hotel has a small kitchen area that we can use and a fridge so we've been to the supermarket and stocked up, its rather nice having breakfast on the roof terrace looking at the volcano.

This is a place you could live. There is fine dining mixed with cheap local eats in the market, its quite an eclectic mix.

There is a great farmers market on Saturdays. The flowers were unbelievable. We bought a little wooden thing to make guacamole with, but given the amount we're eating at the moment it could be some time before we bother at home. It's also possible we may be clucking when we get home, away hasn't gone by that we haven't eaten chicken.

We take a bus to Ciudad Vieja, the chicken bus, Sunday morning is for market and church there, so we do a bit of both. Our good deed for the day is helping a little old lady home with her shopping, strangely she wants us to pay her when we get there - not sure how that works!

We'll be coming round the mountain

Surviving the scam at the Guatamalan border we find our way to El Remate, a quiet town near to Tikal, a large Mayan ruin about 40 miles into the country. Digs are found and food is sought. We've met up with Kornelius again and we're sharing a room, it makes it nice and cheap.

Dinner is in the front garden of someone's house. There's kids and chickens and pigs and dogs running round. Chicken is killed to order! The food is delicious and we vow to return.

Our purpose for being here is to see Tikal, at 5am we're getting on a minibus to be greeted by Canadian Kerry. Turns out they're usually a lively crowd thats on the bus but they obviously don't do mornings. Tikal is great, the grand plaza is very impressive. The ruins were discovered in the 1800s and there's some very interesting pictures in the museum along with the tomb of Ah Cacao (Lord Chocolate), along with all his jade and ceramics that he was buried with.

From El Remate we head to Lanquin with the lively Aussies, way up in the mountains, it takes 13 hours to get there and we arrive in the dark so have no idea what the place looks like. We pass on Zephyr hostel as that's where the party is at (yeah, we're getting old) and head to El Retiro. The next morning, we're quite blow away by the view from our little cabin.

Huge omelette for breakfast and then off for a walk in town looking for a lift to Semuc Champey, a series of pools up in the mountain where the river disappears into a cave and comes out a different colour. We share a lift with an Argentinian couple and the driver agrees to wait for us for 2 hours. We climb up and up the side of the gorge to the mirador at the top - wow - it's a knackering hour and a quarter climb but its worth it. Just 15 minutes down and we've earned a dip in the pools.

We're booked on the 6am bus tomorrow morning to Antigua, its cold and its pouring, back down the mountain we go.

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo

An early boat back to the mainland and a bus towards Belmopan, the capital of Belize, we get the driver to drop us off by the Belize Zoo. The zoo is world renowned and offered up as a model of good practice. All the animals are there due to being rescued rather than being captured, which is fantastic. The enclosures are as natural as can be, fences round jungle, rather than a fake habitat inside an enclosure. You can get really close to the animals, jaguars and crocodiles alike. It's a great place. We get chatting to an American couple visiting their daughter who lives in San Ignacio where we're headed and they offer us a lift, completely avoiding Belmopan.

As we near San Ignacio Belize changes, it smartness up and softens. We arrive in town and find my chosen accommodation, J & R Guesthouse. Our room is smart and just off the breakfast terrace with a private bathroom.

We spend the next two days just chatting with our fellow housemates, there's Canada who's loud and has a view on everything, Randy (American) quiet and laid back, Cornelius (Australian) chilled and philosophical and Matthew (Canadian) film maker keeps to himself. Desayuno inclusivo! So 7am finds us all gathered round the table chewing the breakfast and the fat. The day pretty much just involves floating in and floating out, it's chilled and we're like a 'normal' dysfunctional family.

Saturday morning sees us at the big market it sells everything you could want, fruit and veg, clothes, wine (made by 2 English guys and really bad), Watchtower magazines (yes you did read it correctly), rabbits, guinea fowl, chicks and meat. There's also a section serving food so we sample tacos and papusas. basically the food all involves the same ingredients; tortilla, refried beans and cabbage sometimes some chicken sometimes some cheese. This makes tacos, burritos, quesadillas and papusa amongst, I'm sure, loads of other things. It has to be said they're not little in this neck of the woods and this might explain it! 

 The Belize Botanical Garden is a short bus ride out of town and a 4km walk from the road. Thankfully Dale, a retired American professor of anthropology, comes along and we get a lift. He takes us the 1 mile beyond his place and tells us to all on our way back, he's headed back to the road later. The garden is wonderful, there are 400 native trees and everything is labelled. The orchid house


Saturday night sees us out on the town for a few beers and a curry with the lads. It's a rough night and we're all in bed by 9.30pm.

Sunday morning and its time to say goodbye. Randy gives us a lift to the border with Guatamala and Kornelius follows, we got ourselves a convoy.

Paradise found

Breakfast on the balcony before heading off for a bus to Belize City. Border crossing extremely easy, security was so laid back after the American experience. Belize is a real cultural hotchpotch with a big Caribbean influence, it was under British rule until 1981 when it became independent, although it is still part of the Commonwealth. The Belizean dollar is tied to the US dollar so it's quite expensive Adrian is already looking forward to Guatamala!

Our arrival in Belize City is a bit of a shock, the roads are not good, it's piddling down again and our chosen accommodation is ridiculously expensive so we decide what the hell lets go to Caye (pronounced key) Caulker. Water taxi booked and 50 minutes later we're stood on a paradise island.

 Blue sea, white sand and palm trees. We manage to find a cheap room 45 Belizean dollars which is around £14 with beach views. The place is buzzing, not busy, just vibrant. Lots of restaurants and the fabulous Lazy Lizard bar on the split. The split is where the island is 'split' in two by a channel of beautiful clear blue water. They do a great beer deal and its the place to be for sunset.

Lots of walking and resting and swinging on the porch. Adrian books a snorkelling trip but it's seriously rough out there so I decide to be on chilling, 12 noon is officially rum time I reckon so that's me sorted. We've managed to walk round the whole island (not difficult), Adrian has even stood on the end of the runway - literally 5 minutes before a plane came into land.

The food is lovely here, we BBQ'd chicken and lobster one night, had fry chicken and rice with beans another, beautiful fresh fruit and yoghurt for breakfast and coffee is just 33p a cup across the road. Our final night in Caye Calker is BBQ time again and we have fresh red snapper bought from the boat as it arrives and fresh lobster from the other side of the island. Add a lovely spicy homemade salsa and garlic bread and half a bottle of rum and we are away, or as Greg Wallace would say "cooking doesn't get any better than this".

It's not the destination, it's the journey

Well we finally made it down to Chetumal, our gateway to Belize. It's taken a train, two planes, a collectivo, a bus and a taxi.

Manchester Airport had a scary moment, whilst we didn't need a visa (only in transit) we still needed a visa waiver which cost $14 each, thankfully we were able to apply in the Airport. We had 7 hours to kill in Newark International airport so decided as we'd had to pay to sit in the airport we'd exercise our right and venture into the Big Apple. We visited Central Park, Trump Tower, Broadway and Times Square before finding the lovely Piccolo Cafe. Coffee, spaghetti meatballs and goats cheese salad followed by baked New York Cheesecake ensued and we headed back to the airport feeling we'd enjoyed the full $14.

By 11.30pm we were walking the streets of downtown Cancun looking for our first night's accommodation. The deposit had been a whole 62p so I hadn't high expectations! It was fairly grim but I slept so well it didn't matter.

We find breakfast by the bus station, Adrian has 3 tacos and I have coffee and a plate of fruit in preparation for our six hour journey to Chetumal, we're not sat together so could be a crash course in Spanish if we get chatty neighbours.

We've been to Chetumal before, 6 years ago, qand it is not a great memory, Adrian was in the middle of a bout of Delhi Belly and the hotel was unbelievably hot but today we are pleasantly surprised. There's a night market, we've a sea view and I've heard there are bars in town. The lady of the night across the road has just got a job so everyone is happy.  

Sleeps

With only one and a half sleeps to go, things are starting to happen. Adrian has reached apprehensive - a point of our holidays I have learnt to hate. I however, am getting giddy. I've picked my clothes, the first selection has been pared down awaiting the final selection, only those truly worthy of a place will accompany us. So far, excluding what I shall travel in, I have this much luggage...

Not much for 8 weeks but its about twice as much as his nibs. What you take you carry! Oh, just remembered haven't done toiletries yet. Seems I'm not as organised as I thought.

Hope you decide to come along for the ride, next time we meet I'll be in Manchester Airport, seriously giddy and hopefully sporting some new perfume.