Feliz cumpleaños a mí

We're aiming to spend my birthday by the ocean, being a piscean I have an affinity to water. A bus ride to Divisa and a minibus later we're in Chitre. This has to be the hottest place on earth. Digs are at Miami Mikes, who in his own words is living there either "because he's one of America's most or least wanted". The hostel has potential and its the cheapest place in town but Mike's not convinced about the amount of work required!

We decide on a day trip and head out by minibus. Thankfully we didn't bring our packs as there isn't anywhere to stay! We walk from Monagre to El Rompio along the beach about 3km, it's absolutely red hot but so beautiful, hardly a soul around. When we round the point to El Rompio we find everyone at the bar, so we join them. The fishermen are coming in with the hugest prawns you've ever seen, $4 a lb, they looked delicious. We also saw a large ray being filleted and two enormous cat fish brought in.

Sweet and sour chicken for dinner tonight and I treat myself to papas fritas - it is my birthday after all.

The Final Frontier

Ok, so strictly speaking we have to leave Panama and return to the UK but I like that post title so run with me.

From San Jose we take a bus to Ciudad Neily, just a few kilometres shy of the border with Panama. The journey is amazing, from San Jose we go south west to the Pacific Coast and do a lot of the journey along the coast, it's beautiful and mostly unspoilt although there are a few big resorts. Along the Pan American Highway we cross a bridge with loads of crocodiles in the river below.

Ciudad Neily seems a nice place although they need to get to grips with accommodation prices, we turn down the first two but haggle at the third and get it down to $20 and it isn't worth that.

A short taxi ride takes us to the border which is the easiest border crossing ever. The book says allow 2 hours for formalities, it takes 2 minutes at either side and no money is required.

Our first destination in Panama is David, a strange town, a free zone, so a shoppers paradise if you want to buy rubbish (lots of it) or seriously expensive crocs (more pricey than at home). The town is busy with shoppers and in the evening there's a kids show in the Parque Central.

Again beer is sent over by the locals and we find our daily intake is upping from 2 bottles.

Welcome to the Cuckoos Nest

From the peace and tranquility of La Fortuna we head to the bright lights of the capital, San Jose. The bus arrives in a slightly seedy area of town, but best foot forward west ride out for Avenida Central. Our chosen accommodation is Hostel Gran Imperial, just opposite the Mercado Central. It's a little like a mental institution but is scrupulously clean and has hot water, not warm HOT. We choose the only room with a window and its right next to the balcony that runs along the front of the hostel, instant room extension.

We're half a block from Avenida Central, the main shopping street and a stones throw from the Parque Central. Good cheap eats in the market, prawn rice only $5, a cosada which is a typical meal, rice, beans and chicken/pork/beef/fish just over $4. Having been hankering for fish since Belize and not being able to find it at a reasonable price I'm straight there and it's fish fish fish all the way.

The Parque Central is lovely at twilight with loads of parrots noisily vying for a roost in the trees, it's quite a spectacle and a cacophony. As dark falls there's a different population of birds take over the Parque. Parque de la Culture is home to the National Theatre, a stunning building but big band jazz is the only option whilst we're in town and we're not that bothered. Under the square is the Museo del Oro, a vast vault built by the Banco Nacional to house a collection of precolumbian gold dating back to AD700. it also houses an exhibition about the history of money in the world and Costa Rica's currency.

We visit the Estadio Nacional, home to the Costa Rican football team, built strangely by the Chinese. It's not dissimilar to Wembly. The stadium is housed in La Sabana, a park that used to be the airport. The guide book plays up its part as muggers place central, but it's fine and we watch a group of ageing men playing baseball before heading back to town.

On our last night in San Jose we find a bar just a couple of blocks away that is perfect for us, it's almost tempting to stay bit time is marching on...

Liberia to La Fortuna

Our 'crossing' from Nicaragua to Costa Rica is relatively smooth compared to a couple who crossed at the same time, they ended up having to buy a bus ticket each to show they planned to leave Costa Rica, even though they were flying from San Jose and tickets, this cost them $50 and they couldn't use the ticket. Thankfully we didn't get the same immigration official.

Of course no border crossing would be complete without being slightly scammed and this time for us it was the bus. We bought a ticket from a woman (proper rep and everything) but paid double what we would have done 100 yards up the road. We did however, have a fantastic plate of pollo frito and papas frita. We will be connoisseurs by the time we get back.

Our chosen stop is Liberia. It doesn't get a great write up but we're open minded! The 2 hour bus ride is lovely, Costa Rica seems so clean in comparison to Nicaragua, the buses are quite luxurious compared to the chicken buses. Hotel del Tope does us nicely, there's a bar just up the road and a good cheap food shop just round the corner.

The bus ride to La Fortuna at the foot of the Volcan Arenal is breathtaking. We skirt round a large part of the Lago Arenal which is beautiful, flowers everywhere and lots of big resorts but the dollar signs keeps us on the bus. We even pass an alpine village, swiss chalets and a gorgeous alpine church, yodelling to compulsory.

Gringo Pete is lucky enough to get us for the duration. We spend most of our time watching Volcan Arenal from the balcony outside our room. Sadly the volcano suddenly became dormant about 2 years ago after having been active daily since 1968 but we live in hope.

Fortuna is a really lovely town, a bit touristy, they must have thought things would be difficult when the volcano stopped but they've tapped into other natural resources and they're evolving. Probably a good thing is that it's stopped the development that had been happening.

Unfortunately Adrian has his third episode of somewhere foreign belly whilst we're here so we're forced to chill out, something we do surprisingly well. We do manage a very pleasant evening with Dave, Dave, Kate and Crystal ( tramps on wheels), two couples cycling through Central America and have our first taste of red wine for 6 weeks. Do you know I think I've gone off it.

Island Life

Our destination from Granada is Isla Ometepe, an island formed by 2 volcanoes rising out of Lago Nicaragua. A 4 hour boat trip finds us stood in the back of a truck headed to Altagracia. I've chosen the Hotel Central for our stay and on arrival I am not disappointed. Adrian is very taken by the most expensive rooms in the hotel ($20) and we have a splurge. The result a lovely cabana with veranda and private bathroom!

Food options are limited here, no menus in any of the 3 'restaurants' just pollo (chicken) or bistec (beefsteak) with rice and beans. We're in agreement rice and beans is losing its appeal.

Admin day (washing, blogging, and mending) is required and its nice to do nothing. Beer and backgammon are of course compulsory on any day.

We take a bus to Balguie, about an hour and a half, with a view to climbing the Volcan Maderas however when we arrive the top is covered in cloud and to be honest neither of us is that committed so we decide to walk back. It's about a 15 kilometre walk, very easy walking with a nice stretch along the beach of the lake. En route we take a detour to see some thermal waters which are cold(!) so we decide against going for a swim. We like our thermals warm.

On our final morning we are woken at 4am by some wannabe DJ,  Hotel California at goodness knows how many decibels and we decide its hell, by the time Celine Dion is singing My Heart Will Go On, we've got a real sinking feeling!

Our return to the mainland and Rivas sees us Costa Rica bound.

Colonial Charms

After our hasty retreat from Honduras, we were quite happy to take things very slowly in Leon, Nicaragua. A beautiful, small, colonial town with a magnificent cathedral. Legend has it either the plans were swapped with the plans for La Paz's cathedral or plans for a less substantial place were submitted but other plans were actually used. Whatever the true story, the cathedral is quite some place. There are twelve pillars in the main body each with a beautiful carving of one of the apostles. The cathedral also houses the tomb of Ruben Dario, most favoured son of Nicaragua and famous poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement in the 19th Century. Not quite a contemporary of the Sitwells but not dissimilar. The roof top of the cathedral could be explored with views across to several volcanoes.

The scenery here is quite breathtaking, there is a line of volcanoes across this area of Nicaragua, several of which are still classified as active volcanoes. We passed one a few kilometres away from Leon that was smoking, you just can't believe what you're seeing really. Volcanoes are the things of stories or news reports from places you've never heard of. The vast majority of them look just like a child's drawing.

Leon is quite a busy little town but in a laid back kind of way and we get caught up in the pace and just spend time being and drinking beer! We do manage to visit several of the 12 churches the town boasts. Sadly as nice as this is, we need to move on.

Granada is our next port of call right on Lago Nicaragua, an immense lake created by tectonic activity that caused a section of the pacific to become landlocked. The lake is now freshwater and is huge, 8000 sq km and is home to sharks amongst other things! The lake doesn't look overly clean but there are Nicas swimming in it, think I'll pass!

There's a much more touristy feel to Granada, so whilst it is still a lovely colonial town it isn't as charming as Leon. There is a great street that comes alive at night where the bars spill out onto the street and entertainers from flute players to giant dancing women to lovely little Nica bands move up and down from bar to bar. One night about 50 (quite possibly more) motorcycles, mainly Harley Davidson but several other types too. There are plates from Florida, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala. Its quite a sight and the evening is great for people watching. There's  a great Irish bar on the street called O'Shea's, our chosen beer spot and they claim to serve the best fish and chips in Central America. We tried them twice just to be sure and yes they were!

From Granada we're able to take a bus to the Masaya Nacional Park, where the Masaya Volcano is. Walking up the volcano is forbidden since an eruption last April however, you are able to be driven up by the rangers. The crater is huge and apart from the wind it is silent at the top. The smoke that is rising from the crater is eerie, it moves without seeming to move and you get glimpses of the other side of the crater where the geology shows the force of eruptions past. There's a little shelter with loads of holes in the roof from rocks blown out of the volcano.  Its different again from Santa Ana and the next one has to have lava!

The visitor centre is brilliant giving loads of information about volcanoes some you understand, most you don't - or is that just me? There is a display showing the eruption from last April, big boulders raining down as the rangers are trying to evacuate the car park at the crater edge. One picture shows a boulder that has smashed through the bonnet of a car. Wonder if that's why they insist cars are reversed into parking spaces?

We came, we saw, we fled!

The border crossing from El Salvador to Honduras was the most rural crossing I've ever done, presumably that's why we had to pay to get through the border - we were the only gringos on the bus and the only people who paid! Such is life in Central America.

Our first stop is Marcala, a busy, dusty and dirty town. We find a nice room and then have a walk round town. Our bar is just a room in someone's house but they've a good supply of beer and crisps. We're not planning to stay long in Honduras so first thing we're on a us to Tegucigalpa, the capital.

Hostel Iberia is our chosen cheapo and we get a little more for our money than we'd bargained for as it transpires this hotel rents rooms by the hour. It's a little noisy and there's a quick turnover of guests! We have a lovely walk around town visiting the Cathedral during mass. Sadly the museum we went to was closed, and had been for 2 years (big up to Footprint guides) so we headed to Parque Concordia which has little Mayan temples in. What the book fails to tell you is that it's in a decidedly dodgy area of town and its where the down and outs hang out. Needless to say we didn't linger well,lets face it, you've seen one Mayan temple you've seen them all.

As the sun starts to set we see queues of hundreds of people waiting for taxis. Most odd. We head to a bar for a couple of beers, they don't see too many gringos round here and there's a lot of staring so we head off for a Chinese, the book (!) say sits the best value option in town. I order chicken fried rice, it's huge. One great mound of rice and chicken, all the same colour - a sort of brown - without any vegetables. I manage about half before I start clock watching. The warnings are be in before 8pm.

At around 11pm I hear a noise that sounds suspiciously like a gun shot but eventually fall asleep. At 2am I hear several more gunshots, by 2.30am there's what sounds like a running street battle going on. It is terrifying although there are two locked metal gates between us and the outside world. By 4am it quiets down enough to drift off.

We're assured by the hotel manager the following morning that Tegucigalpa is safe and we must have been mistaken, whilst the television behind him shows pictures of dead people on the streets with their faces blown off. By 8am we're on our first of 5 buses to Leon in Nicaragua, a safe and peaceful haven, oh apart from the smoking volcano just down the road that is.

Guerillas in Perquin

En route to the border with Honduras we stay a couple of days in Perquin. Fantastic hostel apart from the mosquitoes which bother us all night long. Our purpose in calling here is that it was a major stronghold for the guerillas during the civil war. There is a small museum which is mainly in Spanish so what we don't understand we make up. Its quite horrific and we are surprised that even though its only been over for 20 years it didn't really show up on the radar for us. I watched a film with James Woods in called Salvador a few years ago which explained the situation somewhat. There are photos showing people dead in the streets, tales of complete villages that were massacred (not by the guerillas) and tales of children who were taken from the 'killing fields' or from their parents and moved away. There is an organisation here that seeks to reunite these children with their families still. Again, modern history that chills you to the bone.

Whilst shopping one afternoon when Adrian was lolling in a hammock I talked to Gladys, she must have been in her 70s and was a guerilla in the civil war. It was a conversation that took a long time as she didn't speak English and well, you know about my Spanish. She showed me a photograph of herself from the war, her code name was Deisy. She must have seen and done some shocking things. Gladys showed me round her house and her garden and gave me some oranges from her tree to take away with me. We talked about England and how cold it is and she told me about a friend she has who is Italian who sent her a picture of Italy in the winter. All in all it was a very interesting afternoon.

Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum but there were lots of different guns, rocket launchers and an American helicopter that had been shot down.

San Salvador

We've spent 3 nights in San Salvador in a "quiet, safe area" and thoroughly enjoyed them in spite of all the horror stories. On our first morning a guy at the hostel warned us to to go more than two blocks from the Plaza Meyor. Of course we did. We never once felt threatened and walked round the biggest market I think I've ever seen. Barcelona were playing Real Madrid and we watched the last 20 minutes or so in the market with all the fans. It might as well have been a local derby, but it was safer than watching Wednesday v United anyday.

The Palacio Nacional is on one side of the central square and the cathedral on another. The Palace no longer houses parliament but did until 1974, it now houses the national archive, it's upper floor and inner courtyard were both open to the public and grand enough to fit their previous purpose.

The Cathedral was only built in the last century after it was destroyed and, I believe, was the last Cathedral of the millennia to be consecrated. It was very cathedral-esque but in a plain, understated sort of way.

We took a day trip to Suchitoto from San Salvador, the cultural capital of the country. You wouldn't find a sleepier town anywhere, it made a nice change to the hustle and bustle of the capital city.

At the end of the road where we stayed was a bar, then a huge boulevard with Wendy's, Mister Donut, Burger King, Pizza Hut and China Wok. We of course sampled the bar every night and also sampled Wendy's (i'd never heard of them but Celine, an English girl we met, said she vaguely remembered them from the UK) and the China Wok - pupusas are nice but you can get a bit fed up of them. One night we didn't eat just drank beer with Celine and Gus, most of which was provided courtesy of the bloke on the next table who was absolutely frazzled by the end of the night. Mind you Adrian didn't remember getting back and Celine only saw about two hours of the following day! Hospitality!

The couple who went up a volcano and came down a volcano

An early 5.30am sees us slinking away from Lago Coatepeque under the cover of dark, along with all the school children on the bus. Loud pop music is blasting out presumably to wake them up! It certainly worked with us. Cerro Verde is our destination today, the plan to climb a volcano, not just any volcano, Santa Ana who last erupted in 2005, just days after a hurricane devastated much of the country. We're assured there are places to stay in the national park.

"No, no habitacion a Cerro Verde, solo San Blas" the driver tells us, honestly you'd think we were natives. The driver duly drops us at the San Blas stop, the 'village' is 1.5 km up hill. When we arrive there is no village just a few cabanas which are lovely. The only drawback is no food! The restaurant facility is only open at weekends. We find a lovely lady who will look after our packs for us and head off to meet the guide and police who take the tours up the volcano.

It's nice walking to start with, shaded and a gentle incline as we leave the trees the incline increases and we're walking on rocks and across evidence of lava flows, Agave plants as far as the eye can see. As we climb the plant life peters out and the rocks underfoot become loose. It's a hard slog. The view across to Cerro Verde and the baby volcano Izalco is stunning, Izalco is completely devoid of vegetation and is a stark contrast to the lush green of Cerro Verde. Izalco looks exactly like a drawing a child might do of a volcano and we can look down on it from Santa Ana.

When we reach the top it's almost a relief, it became tough going and it's 1pm - mad dogs and English men etc. etc. Looking down into the crater is a huge WOW, the sulphur pool is about 400 feet below us, about 700 feet below that is the magma. The sulphur pool is turquoise, bubbling in the centre and steaming around the edges. It is absolutely silent. The descent is harder but quicker, taking about an hour.

Thankfully our packs are safe when we return and we head back to the road to find a bus. After about an hour of waiting, we flag down a truck climb on the back and arrive at the main highway just as the bus to town is arriving, there's about 20 locals waiting who cheer when the bus arrives, think they might have been waiting sometime!

A snap decision finds us stood on the slip road of the PanAmerican Highway where two minutes later a bus to San Salvador appears. Onwards...