Here, there and back again

Cheers,

This past month has been a little bit crazy, but fun. Since coming back from Mexico for New Years I spent a little while in Guatemala City which was a nice break from traveling. My days were filled with sleeping in, watching TV and eating good food.

The plan was for me to head out to El Salvador and then stay in Honduras after that, in which Charlie and I would go together. Charlie needed to go to these cities for work and I would keep myself busy checking out the new sites. He was going to drop me off in Honduras and I was going to continue my journey south. It sort of happened, but with a few minor adjustments. It goes as follows:

Charlie and I left for San Salvador, El Salvador a week and a half ago. The drive from the City to the El Salvador/Guatemala border was beautiful. The day was clear and sunny and the landscape was different than the rest of Guatemala. That is one thing that I have really appreciated about Guatemala is that it is a very beautiful country with a ton of different geographical landscapes.

At the border in San Cristóbal it was pretty hectic and more people coming up to the car and trying to exchange money than in any other border I have been too. They were relentless and would put the faces to the car’s windows five to six at a time. Although getting into the country wasn’t a problem. The lady at Immigration did comment on my passport picture and my looks. With my broken Spanish I thought that she said that I looked very different and in my passport picture I looked very young. I was horrified, especially with my 27th birthday coming up I have already been depressed about getting and worse looking older. However, it turns out that she said my hair looked different, and still looked very young thanks to Charlie’s translation. Yah! I look young!

Within two hours we were in San Salvador. I instantly loved the city and knew from the drive in that I was going to like this place. The road was a newly paved, four lane with freshly painted lines and they use American dollars. No messy exchange rates in my head. As for San Salvador it is actually a very clean city that is big, but with a calmness about it I haven’t found before in Central America. It actually reminded me of Southern California, sort of San Diego-ish.

However, this is where the “backpacking” stops and the “packing” starts. We checked ourselves into the Hilton Hotel and it was great. And since Charlie is an executive member, we even got better service than normal. (Although don’t ask him about the room service fiascoes). It felt so good to be home again J We had room service, worked out at the gym, had spa treatments and massages and watch cable TV. During the day I would lie by the pool and read and at night we would eat at nice restaurants and go to fun bars.

This city is very cool and I am really surprised at how great it is. Plus the people are really friendly. We met up with Charlie’s friend Paulina who is this beautiful, eccentric girl for shopping and coffee my two favorite things. After words, we went home to eat and change before meeting up at a local bar/club with Paulina, her boyfriend and friends for drinks. Apparently he has an open tab at the place so he bought everyone’s drinks all night, needless to say we had fun. I have to admit that the best line that came out of that night was a quick conversation held by Paulina and I:

Paulina: I really like you Craig. You are so sweet.
ME: Ah, thanks I really like you too.
Paulina: No, I mean I really like you. Do you want to know why?
ME: Why?
Paulina: Because you like me.

Priceless! You can’t even make stuff up like that.

After two days of bliss, Charlie and I headed for San Miguel to stay the night there on our way to Honduras. I can tell you that San Salvador is different than the rest of the country which isn’t all that desirable so we didn’t do much in San Miguel. The next morning we were off to Tegucigalpa, Honduras’ capital and no matter how many times someone tells me how to say it I still can’t. Aside from some pretty natural landscape, there isn’t a whole lot in Honduras and the people are not as nice as in other parts of CA.

We countered this by checking ourselves into the Intercontinental Hotel, which was conveniently located next to a mall. Yah! More room service, cable TV and shopping! We only stayed one night there because we needed to get to San Pedro Sula. Again, not much to see on the way there and San Pedro Sula wasn’t that nice either although we did check into the Princess Hotel. Are you getting the picture? :-)

There was a little excitement in San Pedro Sula though. Charlie and I forgot our passports/ID’s/money in the safe at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tegucigalpa and were getting them shipped to us which were to arrive the next day for us to pick up. Well the night that we were in San Pedro we went out to dinner of all places Applebee’s (I am horrified that I just admitted that), but it was close to the hotel and we were tired. I can tell you that all Applebee’s look the same, sound the same and taste the same.

On our way back to the hotel we got stopped by the police. They do random car check points all over in Central America, but a lot in Honduras. They ask for your ID and proof of insurance to make sure you haven’t stolen the car and that you are protected. Well since we didn’t have our ID’s and after some lengthy discussions, they were going to take us to jail. The called over more policemen and Charlie got out of the car to talk to them. This is really horrible, but I was secretly excited that we might go to jail. Horrible I know, but it sounded like a fun adventure and I didn’t think that we would be there long (am I being ignorant?). However, Charlie paid the policeman 335 lempiras, which was in small bills so it looked like a lot of money, but in reality it was only a little over $15.00.

The following day we headed out to La Cieba and we stayed with Charlie’s cousin Mila. The plan was to go to the Bay Islands for a few days and then Charlie would go back to Guatemala and I would head to Nicaragua. However, it was raining the entire time that we were in La Cieba and we thought going to the islands would be a waste time. So instead we hung out with Mila, ate and saw a bit of the city.

We decided to head to Copan instead of staying in La Cieba. Which out of everything that I have seen in Honduras is the best. It is a beautiful, small colonial town with a lot of charm. There are ruins near by, but we didn’t have time to see them. I really did not mind because I was able to visit the ones in Tikkal, but will do it if I pass through Copan again. I hope that I do because it was really great. We did go through Esquipulas to visit this church that houses a Christ statue brought over in the 17th or 18th century by an archbishop that is buried there. Apparently it is well known that if you come before it, pray and make a wish it comes true. There were all these plaques from people that had miracles happen to them and their families. I’ll let you know if mine comes true.

Charlie needed to head back to Guatemala for his cousin’s wedding, but said that he needed to come back down again to work. So here I am, back in Guatemala City typing this blog. I feel like I have come full circle, despite having done so much. The plan is to leave again on Tuesday for El Salvador, then quickly pass through Honduras on route to Nicaragua. Charlie will finally drop me off in Granada, Nicaragua where I will stay and study more Spanish.

Could it be that there are more Hiltons, shopping and coffee in my near future? One never knows, but it will definitely be a stark contrast to the life I am eventually embarking on. I do know that I started with one bag and now have two to carry.

Happy trails,
Craig

PS: I have read some past blogs and I am a bit troubled by all of my errors. Although updateable, I don’t have time to go back and make corrections, so I will try to actually re-read what I write. In the meantime, please be kind and forgiving. I write these fast and typically in a setting with a lot of distractions. Thanks! :-)

Mexico with a Bang!

Feliz Año!

After Christmas Charlie met up with Lisa and I in Belize City on route to Playa del Carmen. We decided to stay the night there and Charlie got us a room at the Princess Hotel (appropriate, no?) for a Christmas present. It was great. The hotel also had the city’s only movie theatre (we saw A Shark’s Tale, complete with pop, popcorn and peanut M&M’s), casino, pool and restaurant inside.

The movie got out around 5 pm and we ran into Charlie in the lobby which was a surprise because he was driving in from Guatemala City. We didn’t expect him until much later in the evening. It was then that we shared our experiences of the Belizean people which is definitely different than anywhere else in Latin America. The funniest was when Charlie pulled over to fill up his car with gas a woman came up to him and said, “Why are you driving a black car, White?” Where “white” in this case was Charlie.

After a great night rest we were off to Mexico which took us about two hours to get to the Mexico-Belize border passing through Chetumal. We pulled into Playa del Carmen around 4 pm after a pretty boring car ride. We were glad to be here and checked into Hostel Playa, where we lucked out and had a private room for the three of us costing $15 dollars a day per person. A welcomed change from the 24-bed room that we thought we had to stay in since we made our reservations at the last minute.

After checking in, we unpacked and decided to check out the town. It was a bit of culture shock for Lisa and I since we have been living in Guatemala for so long. Playa del Carmen felt more like the US than Mexico complete with TGI Friday’s, 3 Häagen Daiz, and designer clothing, jewelry and sunglass stores. The prices also took some adjusting since one meal could cost as much as a whole day in Guatemala.

However, the place is very beautiful especially the beaches. The sand is like white powder it is so fine and the water turquoise blue. We spent most of our days there, getting up around 9 or 10 am, having breakfast and coffee, then off to the beach for at least four hours. It was perfect and just the thing to really get that sought after bronzed tan.

We treated ourselves to some great meals and drinks in the evenings. It was usually something like this: Finish the beach around 4 pm, come home for a nap getting up around 7 pm. We would take a shower and be ready around 9 pm for dinner. Then off to drinks until…? Since unlike Guatemala, Mexico doesn’t really stop serving drinks until the bars close well into the wee morning hours. One of our favorite spots was the bar on top of Hotel Deseo which is similar to Sky Bar in LA.

During the day we would do some shopping and look at all the various boutique shops. There are some great stuff to buy and see, especially with the locals calling out to you to come in and buy something from them. Most of the lines are in Spanish with things like “Hey why don’t you buy something for your girl” to “What are you looking for?” But a few were also in English and my favorite was when Lisa and I were walking down 5th Street, Playa del Carmen’s main street, this guy calls out to Lisa and says, “Hey, you look like “Push” Spice.” Ha ha… Being that there is no Push Spice, but Posh Spice is funny enough, but Lisa doesn’t look like Posh Spice, but Scary Spice which makes it even funnier.

Our schedule was a little thrown off because we lost a day. I guess that happens to people who don’t work J I didn’t know what day of the week it was or what the date was, but I thought that New Year’s Eve was on Saturday. This is a conversation by me and another girl in the hostel on Thursday:

EMMA: Tomorrow a bunch of us are getting together for lunch here to eat and have drinks. We thought it would be fun to get an early start and you should come.
ME: An early start for what?
EMMA: For New Year’s Eve.
ME: But New Year’s Eve isn’t until Saturday.
EMMA: No it’s tomorrow.
ME: How is that possible if today is the 29th of December?
EMMA: Today is the 30th.
ME: Oh….???

A good thing that she said something because we needed to get our plans locked down for the evening. We ended up staying at the hostel for the early part of the night, drinking and playing card games. We brought in the New Year with champagne, 12 grapes, laughter and friends. It was a perfect night and a great way to bring in the New Year.

Afterwards, we decided to go out dancing at Santanera one of the local club/bars. It is a really cool space with a big open bar at the top where Charlie decided to order a $200 bottle of Champagne. After which we went downstairs where the dance floor is and proceeded to drink and dance until around 5 am. It was then when Lisa and I decided that we needed a pizza break and grabbed something to eat. After we got back to the club we danced a bit more and then left returning back to the hostel around 7 in the morning.

Around 9 am I decided to go to the beach with some friends from the hostel and sleep/lay out in the sun while Lisa and Charlie slept. Later in the afternoon we caught another movie “The Incredibles” which was in Spanish, but since it was a cartoon it was pretty easy for me to understand most of it. We grabbed some food and went to bed pretty early. The next day we ate and got some coffee before driving to Belize City.

We stayed the night there at The Great House Inn (“an inn of distinction” so the sign boasted), a cute white cottage and ate dinner in the restaurant. The next morning we were off to Rio Dulce where we stayed the night at Mansion del Rio right on the river. The room included a boat tour of the river and a stop at “Castillo de San Felipe” a fort built by the Spaniards to protect the goods of import/exports coming in and out of the region by the pirates.

The following day we made our way back to Guatemala City and shared our last night with Lisa. Sad. She flew to Ecuador to finish her last part of her trip in South America before returning to the States. I have been staying at Charlie’s house, sleeping in and watching TV all day which has been wonderful. We have been going to dinner parties and will go to Antigua tomorrow for brunch with friends. After this weekend Charlie and I are driving to El Salvador for a few days and then off to Honduras. Charlie will leave me behind and I will be traveling alone from that point onward. I am a bit nervous, but excited to see some new countries.