So after finishing up in Mexico we got on an epic bus ride down to Belize City. Information leads you to believe that this will take 6 hour....11 hours finally saw us arriing in Belize City! It is a very colourful place with heavy Jamaican influence and everyone there speaks english so that put a stop to our halting attempts at Spanish for a few days. We stayed the first night in a place where the little Vietnamese woman was like a hotel Nazi. She boot camped us up and down stairs and all over the place before we checked in and I kept asking what time we had to check out and she kept ignoring me and eventually said anytime is fine, don´t worry about it. With that in mind Nadia and I took our time the next day exploring around the city and finding a more central hostel to stay in. When we went back to get our bags the crazy woman was trying to demand that we pay for a half a day as it was midday. As you can probably imagine I told her in no uncertain terms that she was getting jack out of us. We moved to the Seaside Hostel which was a pretty run down old place but it had a lovely purple and green paint job and a big balcony with hammocks etc upstairs so we were more than happy. It had character and we enjoyed a few drinks on the balcony watching the sunset.
From Belize City after a couple of days break from the bus we headed to Flores in Guatemala. It was a lovely little town on an island with narrow stone streets and colourful buildings. Our hostel was great and served all vegetarian meals and fantastic pina coladas or juice smoothies. We swam each day as it was stiflingly hot and no breeze to relieve it at any time of day. Got a big laugh out of this 12 year old boy who kept trying to be sneaky and take our picture on his camera phone but was anything but sneaky. In the end I got my camera out and made a big show of taking his photo and he left pretty quick after that! Mwahahahaha. The highlight of our trip to Flores would have to be that we finally found a shoestring guide to Central America. If you have ever changed your travel plans and ended up on a path that you have no information about whatsoever then you will understand why we were so excited to find this. And it was only $7 BARGAIN!
Another bus ride through amazingly lush mountains and valleys saw us arriving in Antigua. It is a beautiful town, exactly like a postcard picture. We had a great time wandering up and down the cobbled streets and around the markets. The dusty lot out behind the markets is filled with chicken buses so we enjoyed having a closer look at them and checking out all the decals and paintjobs that make them unique. With only a few days to spend we decided to do something pretty amazing and hiked up to the Pacaya Volcano. It was the coolest thing I have done in ages. They let you get right up close to the lava while it is flowing. Never in a first world country would they let you get anywhere near as close. It was super hot and the pumice type rock that you climb on is pretty freaky as it is constantly breaking and shifting under your feet! Amazing. Nad´s and I were very impressed by all the dogs that were up there wandering around on it like it was nothing. How they had any skin left on their feet is beyond me.
