18 hours and 4 countries later

Spending one week in Belize and two in Guatemala when I only have 5 in Central America was always going to mean lots of long distance bus journeys at some point. That point is now. I write from Granada, in Nicaragua. To get here, I left Antigua, in Guatemala, at 4am, getting to Guatemala City for my 6.30am bus to San Salvador, in El Salvador, where I changed to the 12pm bus to Managua, in Nicaragua. As any of you with a world map will see, going from El Salvador to Nicaragua also means going through Honduras. That´s 3 whole border crossings in one day, and believe me, with corrupt officials that bribe westerners entering countries, and nurses that check you for swine flu, it´s not a whole lot of fun.

The bus was quite empty, and I was the only tourist on it until some others joined in Honduras. I chatted to a Nicaraguan girl (she can´t have been more than 21 yet had her 7 year old son with her) for most of the journey when I wasn´t watching Zoolander on my iTouch or sleeping. She was amazed that I was a) 30 b) not married and c) childless. The look of utter pity on her face when I told her I didn´t have children yet was a sight to behold!

Bus journeys of this sort are a rare opportunity to actually meet locals. The problem with Central America is that the capital cities, where the young, cool people are who would want to talk to backpackers and have some interest in us besides our money, are horrible places that you just can´t spend any time in, so we´re stuck in beautiful tourist towns and isolated beach or lakeside villages with amazing scenery but few locals. It´s not something that bothers me unduly right now, as South America beckons so soon, but it did get me thinking. I´ve met lots of female solo travellers that will happily talk to and go for a drink with local males on their own, with no intention of letting anything happen other than having a nice chat and practicing their Spanish, and they´ve all been fine, but for some reason doing that holds absolutely no appeal for me. I just can´t be bothered spending my time explaining where my boyfriend is and making things up in order to have a conversation. Machismo really does rule the world!

I´m going to the Isla de Ometepe tomorrow for a couple of days, and would be very surprised if there´s anything more than the most basic internet access available there, so probably no updates for a little while...

Before I leave Guatemala

I should really say something about the things I've done in the last few days, non? I'm currently trying to upload photos to facebook, but the internet connection really doesn't want me to, so I shall try words instead of pictures.

Tomorrow I leave lovely Guatemala and all my friends here, and head for Nicaragua. My aim is to spend about 5 days there, seeing Lago Ometepe and taking in the Pacific coast, before speeding through Costa Rica on another bus to Panama. Panama might merit a week or two, then I'll jump on a plane to Ecuador and start my South American adventure. The Panama - Ecuador flight is my last one before the flight home, and although I still have a few months left, I have started to feel like I'm on my way home already. I'm now pretty scared about the prospect of coming home and having to face reality again.

But, yes, Guatemala. After the volcano climbing exploits, we headed up to Lago Atitlan for the weekend. It's only 3 hours from Antigua, but the journey might rate as the worst so far, only competing with Laos to Phnom Penh for discomfort and lack of roads. It's a miracle I wasn't sick.

We stayed at a little village called San Pedro on Atitlan, which is known as the 'backpacker' place to be, as opposed to Panajachel which now has 4 star hotels and San Marco which is full of new age hippies taking 7 day vows of silence.

To be quite honest, we didn't do that much there. It's very cheap, and we used it as a place to save money, cooking our own food and watching films for large parts of the time spent there. Atitlan is hippie central, so lots of other people are there sitting around and doing nothing, talking about yoga classes and reiki healing. I enjoyed it, but it did test my hippie tolerance to the limit. I had the phrase 'just get a job!' going round in my head for a lot of the time.

The one thing that we did do was visit a town called Santiago Atitlan, in order to see the fabled Maximon shrine there. Every year, a different house in Santiago takes turns to have Maximon in their home, and receive visitors all year round who come to pray for money and love and luck. Inevitably, the residents of Santiago have realised that they can make money from tourists who want to see it too, and on arrival at the dock there we were accosted by guides, tuk tuk drivers and small children who wanted to take us to see the 'real' Maximon, fighting with each other and with us to convince us that their Maximon is the real one. There are anywhere from 2 to 10 Maximon in the town, and much time was spent trying to work out which one to see. As half our group was girls, we ended up going with an impossibly cute 10 year old boy (who looked about 6) in a tuk tuk to the very outskirts of the town and seeing the 'real' Maximon there. I was a little underwhelmed to see what was basically a statue of Christ covered with headscarves and US dollar bills, but the locals did really seem to be worshipping him, and it was rare to have the opportunity to see inside a Guatemalan house. I suppose we'll never know whether Maximon is genuine or not - I could picture the locals bursting into fits of laughter after we left at the money that they just got out of us to see a small blinged up statue of Christ in someone's shed.

Being in Guatemala and deciding what to do next

After a few undecided days, my mind made itself up pretty easily about what I'm going to do with the next couple of months. My next flight currently leaves Panama City for Ecuador on 30th June, and I'm going to try to catch it if I can. If I can't, I'll push the date back, but only by a week or so. I've met so many people that are coming north from South America, and although Central America is great for beaches, diving, wildlife and jungles, they've all said that all the really great things about their trips happened in South America. Since I have to be home by November at the latest due to impending birth of niece or nephew number two, and because my funds may only take me as far as September or October, any time I spend in Central America is cutting down my South America time.

I've also decided, after much heart wrenching, not to go to Cuba. I know deep down that this is a decision I may live to regret, but the flight, the visa and the expense of being a tourist there would mean a 5 day trip would come to about 600 pounds. I've also heard lots of not so great stories about the hassle that solo Western women get there, and I just can't be bothered with facing it anymore. Like India, I think I will wait until I can go there with the protection of a male.

Incidentally, although I am aware that there is such a thing as swine flu, you don't hear about it at all here. I've met lots of people that were in Mexico during the 'worst' part of it, and they said that it wasn't actually that bad. Many only heard about it at all because people that had seen the press coverage in England were calling them to check they were still alive...

Anyway, what have I been doing since Flores... Well, I've pretty much been in paradise for the last 4 days. Semuc Champey is in the middle of Guatemala, it takes hours to get to on a dirt road, and there's nothing there but scenery, but it is possibly the most idyllic place I've ever stayed in. Semuc Champey itself is called the 8th wonder of the world here. It's a series of pools formed by a limestone bridge that grew over a section of the river in a really deep valley. Ok, so nature was never my strong point and I've explained it badly, but it was incredibly beautiful, and that's all you really need to know. We went swimming in the fresh water pools, went tubing down a bit of the river, went into some cool caves that you had to swim through... I could have stayed there for weeks.

We were all staying at El Retiro in Lanquin, about an hour's drive on bumpy mountain road from Semuc Champey, which hands down wins the award for best hostel I've ever stayed in. It's on a hill going down to the river, which you can swim in, hammocks abound, the people are great... If they charged 25 pounds a night I'd still have stayed there, but as it is I payed 25 quetzales (a bit less than 2 pounds) to stay in the hammock room and get woken up by the hostel's cow mooing right next to us in the morning.

I really didn't want to leave, but had to, so here I am in Antigua, which is easily the most touristy and developed place in Guatemala. It reminds me of Oaxaca, and San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico, but also of Luang Prabang in Laos and Siem Reap in Cambodia: every poor country has one perfect colonial city where everything works and you can get pizza.

I'm only here until tomorrow, sorting things out today and not really doing very much. I watched Pulp Fiction over breakfast in the hostel today, and I might read in a hammock later on if I can find the energy. Yesterday was a really big day - I climbed a live volcano! Volcanoes are everywhere in Central America, but Pacaya is still very much alive, and has actual lava running down the side of it. It took an hour and a half of hellish uphill walking followed by climbing over hot volcanic rock to get to the lava, but it was worth it to be able to say that I've roasted marshmallows in lava at the top of a volcano and lived to tell the tale. I know this is a rather stupid thing to write, but I had no idea that it was going to be so hot up there; I felt like I had spent an hour in an oven by the time we left. I was wearing my white Primark trainers, which is all i have in terms of feet coverage, and my poor little feet were very very hot by the end of it all. I'm just pleased that my 2.50 pounds bought me enough rubber to stop the soles melting, which is apparently relatively common.

Normal service resumes

Apologies for the 2 month break in blog writing. Since my last post from Japan, I've been to LA and Colorado, had a travelling hiatus, went to Vegas, went to Belize, and am here writing this in sunny Guatemala. Phew. The last couple of months have been pretty schizophrenic, and it took me a while to get back into the world of backpacks and hostels and conversations about where you've come from and where you're going, but I think I am now.

In order not to make this post inordinately long, I'll skip all that happened in the US, plus gloss over the week spent in Belize at the beach and on a sailboat in the Caribbean and start here in Flores, which is the town that you stay in in order to visit the Mayan temples at Tikal. It's on a small, hilly island in the middle of a huge lake, and is very scenic. It's obviously a massive tourist trap, but it's nice.

I'm staying in a pretty perfect hostel - one of those ones where everyone knows each other and spends the day hanging out in hammocks listening to Manu Chao and drinking pineapple shakes. I think everyone that has ever visited Flores will have stayed here, and with good reason.

Everyone is here to visit Tikal, which I wasn't particularly excited about, feeling more that I should visit it as you shouldn't come to Guatemala without going, but it turned out to be utterly stunning and well worth the visit. I had to get up at a hideous 4.30am to get there for opening at 6am, but since I chose not to join everyone else on the guided tour, I had the whole entire place to myself for the first couple of hours, and spent them sat on top of one of the temples looking out at the jungle listening to my iPod. Ok, so I know nothing about the history of Tikal, but hey, Maya Schmaya, right?

All other activities undertaken in Flores have involved finding ways to escape the heat: yesterday we used the pool of a posh hotel (it was completely empty - it's heartbreaking how quiet things are here, only the backpackers are here) and today we went and swam in the lake, although it's very shallow so it felt like taking a hot bath.

For various reasons, both financial and personal, I may have to shorten my trip down by a couple of months, and this is something I have to decide in the coming weeks. I seem to be unable to make a firm decision, though, so I have decided that I am going to travel one day at a time and let the decision make itself. So far I know that I am going to Semuc Champey tomorrow, and after that I have idea. Down to Panama, but fast, skipping Honduras and Costa Rica? Straight from Guatemala to South America? What about Cuba? And do I want to go back up into Mexico since I didn't get there this time? All suggestions, educated or non, welcome.