Alright, I haven't posted since Guatemala! There's a lot that's happened so I will give some abrieviated version.
I spent my last couple days in Guatemala alone at San Perdo, Lake Atitlan. Really nice days just getting ready to see Joey, repairing ripped clothes (clothing really takes a beating on the road and in those washing machines), soaking up alone time, and exploring the lake a bit more. I was able to make it over the the Yoga Farm I was thinking of apprenticing at and have decided that's not the place for me. Good to be able to knock something off the list when the list seems to grow exponentially. My favorite part of cruising to other parts of the lake was noticing the difference in the indigenous peoples. The people in San Perdo have by far the prettiest clothing, even though the men dress more modern, the women wear beautiful blouses with intricate embroidery around the neck and bright colors to match the very bright multi-colored skirts with the thick belt to tie it all together. The belt and the way they sinch their skirts forms pockets! How ingenious! The men in Santiago dress traditionally for the most part; white pants with colorful embroidery at the ankles with no shirt at all or colorful dress shirts with the leather sandals.
In order to get to El Zonte, El Salvador (where Joey and I were meeting) I had to take 2 travel days. I left San Perdo and spent the night in Antigua, where I had been once before so it was easy to navigate and find a hotel for cheap since I knew what to expect. I ate some of the best food of my trip that night. Yummy Israeli raw salad and cilantro soup followed by a French crepe with homemade chocolate sauce, banana and whipped cream! It was a good thing I had a last supper because food has been pretty rough since leaving Guatemala. I got on the bus early on the 30th and arrived in El Zonte around 2pm. I wandered around a bit at the beach before finding Joey. It was so great to see him. It was like no time had passed between us. Joey had been at this beach for about a week before I got there so he showed me around and we ate burritos for lunch. We splurged a little bit for a nice hotel looking over the waves on a cliff outside of town a bit.
We spent the next two days just hanging out at the beach, lounging and getting reaquaited. We moved to another beach on the 1st of January, Sunzal. Staying in Sunzal for 9 days, I think. Sunzal turned into a long stay because my body decided to short circuit there. First I got strept throat, spent many days laying in bed, went to the free medical clinic and got a shot of peneciliian in my butt, met a holistic doctor at his juice shop and had some acupunture visits with him. Joey was surfing every day until he sold his surf board and then there was nothing for either of us to do we were just waiting for my next acupunture appointment which was in the city, San Salvador. We waited in Sunzal because it was dramatically cheaper at the beach. The next town over, Tunco, had movies every night at a restaraunt so we ended up going there most nights, sitting and playing in the water at the beach, relaxing at the coffee shop on top the lagoon that flows into the ocean, or relaxing in hammocks at our hostel.
San Salvador is a huge, busseling city. Expensive everything, expect movie theatre for $3 each! I went to my doctor appointment and bought a yoga mat a then we were outta there for Perquin!
We took a rather luxurious bus to San Miguel and then jumped off to get another bus to San Francisco Gotera. While Joey was loading our bags on the bus I went pee only to come back to no bus and Joey on the stree with our bags, cleary I took too long to pee. I had to sneak passed the metal round-about into the toilets because I was 10 cents short for entrance fee, I was telling the guy its okay because I have my own paper but he was yelling and holding the roundabout in place. We got on the next chicken bus going our direction with the help of a toothless homeless man who turned out to be the doorguy on board. He shuffled us off at our stop in SF Gotera and loaded us into a pickup truck with a tarp roof. Moor people kept getting on when I though there was no room left. The ride up to Perquin got higher and higher and the views beautiful, we were able to see the sunset from our open car ride.
Arriving in Perquin at night was not ideal because we couldn't see much in the distance but turned out perfectly. We went to every hotel in town, they were all too expensive. Our last stop was the War Musuem at the top of the hill. Jackpot, $3 per night for camping in the middle of the museum's grass. The gimpy man (Jose) and one eyed man (Chepe) helped us get settled, more like, just stood and watched us even awkwardly after all was set up. Went down hill to get pupusas and fresh orange juice. Watched the youngens play some soccer on the asphalt basketball court and then off to bed.
The next day was very adventureous! Diarrhea day 1. First we got a tour of the museum, given by Jose, we understood about 10% of what he said. Most the of museum artifacts were collected by these men around Perquin. Every man over 40 was in the war with obvious signs.I had several trips to the toilet during the museum tour :( We then set off to walk the 8km to Mozote, another war ravenged town in the vicinity. We walked the majority, stopped for coffee on the way and then hitched a ride. Our ride took us way out into the mountains to a town called Joateca. We saw the junction for Mozote but the truck went the other direction and we just went with it. We wanted to see where they were going because we couldn't imagine a town so far out, but low and behold and busy pueblo just over the mountain. We walked around the town, went into the city hall and saw where we were on a map and then hitched out of town toward Mozote. Got a ride from a hardware store who was delivering concrete. Joey helped unload a bit to the tienda down the road. Finally made it to Mozote around 4pm. There's a nice monument to the 1000 people who were massacred there in 1981. A woman gave us a little tour of the garden (again I had to take several breaks from out tour ). Then back on the road to get home before dark. We managed to get back around sunset and I went to sleep right away.
The next morning we got up early to miss the bus across the border into Honduras. We walked a bit down the road and then stopped at a tienda where we spent the next 3 hours, eating snacks and hanging out with the family. They offered us to wait inside until our ride came. Around 11am we caught a ride up the mountains in the back of a pickup with a friendly Honduran man who lived in Daly City but spoke little Enlgish and his happy daughter. We got a different ride at the top, still with the man and his daughter. The ride got super cold and foggy once we crossed the border and the little girl got closer and closer to ended to ride with her in my lap, me making sure she didn't freeze. She was adorable. Its comforting to hang out with a little one, where language doesn't really matter.
We got off in Marcala, Honduras! Sat at the ¨bus station¨ for a bit trying to figure out how to progress from there to Lago de Yojoa. We couldn't figure it out! haha. So we spent the night there and decided to deal with it in the morning. We waited for the us to Comayague for about 45 minutes the next morning before finding out its the wrong spot to wait. Joey chased down a chicken bus he saw down the street and it was our bus so he asked them to drive slow so we could meet them at the next intersection. He came back to me running so I got the bags on and we did a fast fast/ run 4 blocks away. Its super awkward to run in Latin America. No one is ever in a hurry and so when you are they think its hysterical. After passing people you can hear them laughing at our rediculousness. But we got the bus! Awesome. Nice ride through the mountains to Comayague and then a good 1.5 hr wait at the bext bus station. Missed 1 bus because Joey was out getting snacks, whoops! Got on the next bus to Lago de Yojoa! Surprisingly made it to La Guama, a town around the lake, with the bus flying around the corners and passing on turns (remember these chicken buses are the same buses the US school children took on fieldtrips back in the 70s and 80s but now they are painted fancy and say ¨Jesus es Dio¨ or something of sorts across the windshield). A young boy helped us get on a microbus to the lakeside resorts. We got off near the lake and wandered around looking for a place to set up our tent. It was dark and I was getting rather moody, mosquitos were eating me alive and I thought I was going to die from heat exhaustion (welcome back to the tropics!). A man guarding a coffee plantation let us camp in his yard after Joey had a conversation with him. He called his wife who stepped outside of their house across the street and she came over to get us and bring him a plate of food. She was Carribean looking and 1 of their 3 children was too. The kids hung out while we set up our tent and then went to be. We stayed up eating avocado and cucumber and playing cards for another couple hours before sleeping. In the morning we packed up and set out looking for a more legit place to camp.
We found a great spot at Agua Azul. Its got lots of little cabins on the lake, super nice. We got a fantastic deal! $5 a night to camp anywhere we want and full access to a room for showers, toilet, and storage. We set up our tent and hammock at the end of the building in the grass and have our own little private residence. They don't appear to have any other guests so its very quiet. Its an amazing spot to watch birds. I've seen over 30 species in one morning, easily from the tent or hammock.
Yesterday we finally found the brewery...we had one unsuccessful trip looking for it. Joey tasted some beers and I got homemade root beer! Then we wandered around a coffee plantation. The most beautiful I've seen so far. The canopy layer still stands, many low laying plants integrated in, and no irrigation. Harvest was a couple weeks ago so the trees are rather barren but still excellent examples of how coffee grows best.
Whew! That was a lot (and it was abbreviated too). Thanks for staying tuned to my travels, if you are still there...
Adios amigos!
