We got to Placencia and suffered a slight dilemma. The onward trip to the Bay Islands of Honduras OR head south through Guatemala and into Nicaragua as quickly as possible. We had already made plans to return to the eastern seaboard of Mexico and make trips through into northern Guatemala and then to Honduras for some diving in the future so the option to head south to Antigua seemed the best. We looked for options and routes and were presented with a boat leaving Placencia at 6:30am followed by a chicken bus ride from Independence to Punta Gorda. This bus was scheduled to leave at anytime between 7:30 and 9:00 and arrived at around 8:30. The town of Independence was hot, humid and full of dogs that provided entertainment in the blistering morning sun. The early morning rain had provided an extra dose of humidity and we sat waiting for a bus sweating a little like Charlie Sheen in Apocalypse now… drenching our shirts and shorts creating little puddles around us. Well, I did anyway. The bus arrived and we threw on our bags and enjoyed the breeze while chatting to a teacher from Norway with his enviable two month holidays every year. He knew the score for the trip as he’d done the reverse two days earlier. Arriving in Punta Gorda at ten a.m. we found we’d missed the boat at ten and that the next would be at twelve thirty. The newly developed customs house needed to be paid for so the exit fee had been hiked up by 26.50 USD each and there was a park fee of USD 7.50 each to pay as the boat travels through a maritime park. So... instead of costing $3.50 as advertised by the Belizean Government website, for exiting we ended up paying $37.50 for the pleasure. Betta Belize it for the last time!
The boat was powered by two very fat 200BHP engines which, roaring to life, ripped through the fairly calm coastal waters and made the trip seem like it was taking no time at all. The distance from Belize rapidly increased and Honduras and Guatemala decreased. As we arrived close to the first stop, Livingstone, the forested landscape in the back was beautifully framed by the small town and its very colourful houses and boats, manicured gardens leading to the sea and a very random statue in the sea by the headland. Like most forms of transport in the area, there was another boat waiting patiently for our boat to arrive prior to its departure upstream into Guatemala. Our departure to our destination Puerto Barrios was an estimated minute later and then we were cruising past shrimping boats and the coast line once more. As we arrived in Puerto Barrios the distinction between a working city and the tourist city Livingstone became abundantly clear; there were no brightly coloured buildings here! There was a massive battered Banana ship in dock loading huge refrigerated banana containers and the town was full of trucks taking more to the port or heading inland with empty trailers. When heading out of Puerto Barrios later that day by bus, it looked like an enormous truck parking station. Arriving there was interesting, with no port authority or passport control, but a wave of the hand in the vague direction of the authorities office. It was nice to see that there was almost no interest in our arrival, a stamp without a passing glance and then a wave to carry on…
Guatemala’s first impressions were encouraging, cheap and cheerful as we had hoped! The bus ride to (70 Quetzals for both) Guatemala City took a cool 5 hours and we arrived having watched a number of pretty rubbish films, one in English and two in Spanish. The impression gained of GC as we drove through it at night was not positive. The streets were devoid of human life it seemed, cars and cabs dominated the very empty streets and when we arrived at the bus station the very kind taxi drivers informed us that it would pretty much be suicide to walk around at night. So we took a cab around the corner to a “safe” hotel and booked in for the night. It was fine, clean and tidy and GC was refreshing, a cool breeze was a nice change from the heat of the coast line. The city lies at around 1500 meters above sea level and is surrounded by mountains. The next day we walked back to the bus station and were put into a taxi to the chicken bus station where we jumped on a bus that left almost immediately (8 Quetzals each) and headed to Antigua, the must-see town nearby.
When we arrived at the bus station we were greeted by an enthusiastic tourist guide… for once we decided to give a local some time on hotel advice and we didn’t get a bad deal! The hotel we were taken too had a lovely big bed, was clean and safe. Casa Santa Lucia is on Calle Poniente 6a which was the next street to the south of the bus station and we were charged around 80 Quetzals each for the night. The town itself was very picturesque and has a dozen or more Spanish schools in it, so the population was pretty western and dominated by tourists both backpackers and wealthier types. We headed out for lunch and to our surprise found a very good Austrian Restaurant called Wiener! I had to try the Schnitzel which was possibly the best I’ve had in over a year! We had no further plans so mooched around town for the day before booking a trip for the next day to the Volcano. Earlier in the afternoon, we were sitting in a café when a volcano to the West of Antigua began erupting, billowing large plumes of smoke and ash, it was very exciting.
I think the volcano was the best 20 dollars we spent on the whole trip. The long bus ride which started a little late was spent training one of the drivers who stalled at junctions and swapping over here and there supported by some college boys from the US who whooped when the trainee got into the driver’s seat. The 4km hike up the mountain started out very tamely then as we scrambled up the sharp rocks and loose gravel it became slightly trickier. We’d opted for the later afternoon walk up so reached the interesting bits around 5:30 in time for what is usually a very nice sunset, except it was clouded over. What I had expected to see was there in front of my eyes, and since reading a National Geographic about lava and volcanoes waaaaaay back in the 1980’s (late) has been something I’d wanted to get close to. The rocks we walked over were hollow, some slightly brittle and certainly not safe. Then the heat hit us, the kind of heat that blasts from an open oven that has been on maximum heat for the past hours and the glimpses of red hot molten lava between the rocks in crevasses. There was a crowd at one area which we thought was just another group milling around, but when we headed over to them we saw molten lava flowing out of the mountain side. The view from less than a meter away is amazing and incredibly hot, much hotter than any sauna. We toasted marshmallows and they toast very well up there, perhaps better in the crevasses than near the molten lava though. Jen was using a stick to clamber over the rocks and realized that the end was on fire, which was funny. Looking at the lava was only possible through dancing as the rocks were so hot that you needed to keep moving to stop the shoes melting. This has definitely been one of the trip highlights, toasting marshmallows on a live volcano that is due an eruption anytime soon! I don’t think this really is an option anywhere else in the world… the trip back down was interesting, half sliding, half running to stay up and off the sharp rocks, lots of sliding down on our bums did happen. There was a lot of dust in my shoes, small rocks and debris. Oh, we had to do it in pitch black - what a great day out!
We arrived back sweaty and dirty at around ten, four hours to kill before our massive road trip to Nicaragua… and decided to make one more visit to the Wiener restaurant for a “romantic” candle lit dinner. The food was terrific but we did feel like tramps, stinking of sweat and slightly grimy from the hike, which gave us both a good laugh. The toilet sink did get quite abused as I washed my feet in it. After it closed we found some bars and consumed vast quantities of red bull, coke, tea and then had a wait in the park (this seems to be quite common and was fairly busy for 2am…) until our cab picked us up to start our trip. The city closed its doors at one am, so not really the party town we’d hoped for when making the booking for the bus! MT
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