From Panajachel we jumped, staying in Guatemala, to Antigua [The old capital]. It is the old capital because it keeps on having earthquakes. You build an amazing cathedral, it lasts 200 years before its shaken to rubble, you think its a one off, so you put up a second, even more beautiful cathedral, which lasts about another 100 years, before its shaken to rubble again, you just think lets stop building cathedrals here. As the definition of a city is a big town with a cathedral, you have to find a new location. That location is Guatemala City. We arrived there one morning at a bus station, we killed two hours in a Burger King and continued our journey (not really giving it the benefit of the doubt, but to be honest, most of the cities we have been to so far have been pretty uninspiring) on to El Salvador
The guide books do not rage on about San Salvador [El Salvadors capital], so we were not too bothered about investigating further. Unfortunately like so many capital cities, it is also the transport hub for the country. We arrived at 6 o clock in the evening, staying at the Hotel San Carlos, above the bus station, rooms were, just about rooms, walls up to 8 inches below the roof and a strange in your room toilet, shower vibe. I slept with my clothes on saving time the next morning, or as Nicola would suggest, I am a big girls blouse. Nicola got bitten during the night.
We did go out for dinner, but as the area was described as dangerous, we only went two doors down to a local Comida Corriente, like a Caffff. Dinner for two cost 3 dollars and took about 20 mins. The food was actually very nice though.
Up the next morning at 0400, for the 0500 bus to Managua. Not stopping to see sny more of the sites. Another 12 hours on the bus, whizzing through El Salvador and the Honduras without so much as a 'Dos cervezas por favor'.
We arrived in Managua [capital city of Nicaragua] at 1700h, dumped our bags, after checking out all the room options [thanks Penny for the tip] and again went out for comida corriente - again I thought it was pretty decent, deep fried potato ball, half a curried chicken and gallo pinto [mixed rice and black beans]. Another early night, but very satisfied that we had ticked off another 4 countries on our way to our next flight in Caracas.
