Guatemala City

Time to finish the story. From Tikal, I flew to Guatemala City to catch my flight to the States. After nine weeks on the road, I am tired and ready to go home. I have mosquito, ant and spider bites all over my body. I have slipped and fallen several times in the jungle and have a variety of bumps, bruises, scrapes and sore fingers. I am thinking defensively. Guatemala City is known as a tough city. Just let me home without being mugged.

I visited the city center (Parque Central) and the main cathedral. The fence around the cathedral ???????? has stone pillars inscribed with names. The names are listed by province. "Executed." "Disappeared." "Tortured."

We buy a hammock and bedspread at the underground artisan market (it is literally underground) and take our last bus in Central America, the 101, back to the hotel. We

Tikal

Tikal is generally regarded as Guatemala's number one tourist attraction. It is well worth visiting. After visiting several other Mayan sites, I was pleasantly surprised by the dense, rich jungle here. The ruins themselves are large and numerous. It's fun to climb on the pyramids above the tree canopy and see the birds and distant mountains. I visited the site on two sequential days. The jungle is interesting to hike and full of wildlife, including anteaters (coati) and a unique species of turkey.

Making Chocolate

I visited a local indigenous family and watched them make chocolate. The Q'eachi' people harvest the cacao tree and make chocolate to eat and sell to tourists. We bought some chocolate from one family and asked them how they made the chocolate. It was difficult to communicate because only the younger students speak Spanish. But we did receive an invitation for 7 a.m. the following morning.

The key ingredient, cacao, is a fruit that grows on trees. The gourd is about eight inches  long. The nuts inside are white, about one-inch long and

Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey is often regarded as the finest natural attraction in Guatemala. It did not disappoint.  I swam in the pools, floated down the river, visited a cave and watched indigenous people make chocolate.

The Rio Cahabon flows through limestone and creates an underground tunnel. Above is a natural bridge containing numerous turquoise, crystal-clear pools. A gushing waterfall and birds-eye viewpoint complete the magic. The pools are ideal for swimming; I spent many hours there. Below the waterfall, you can tube down the river through the rapids.

Las Gruatas de Marias was a wild cave experience. An underground river flows through

Lago de Atitlán

Lago de Atitlán is a gorgeous location, a large deep lake surrounded by three volcanoes. There are many small settlements around the lake, all accessible by water taxi and some by road. At 5,000 feet, it's cool and comfortable. Unfortunately, crime appears to be rampant everywhere. The guide books are full of warnings; I received a warning on this website from Fritz; and travelers as far way as Costa Rica warned me about Guatemala. Upon arrival, I had fresh reports of theft and robbery. I spoke directly with people who had problems with large amounts of money being stolen. I had my drug store reading glasses stolen after leaving them unattended for five minutes; I challenged the woman with her baby that was the only one there, but she denied it. The night before, a young woman had been robbed with an exacto knife at her throat;

La Antigua

The Spanish built La Antigua. An earlier settlement was totally destroyed by volcanoes. The present location was also destroyed by volcanoes and earthquakes. At one point, the Spanish ordered the people to evacuate, but they refused and rebuilt the city, sort of. Ruins are in abundance everywhere, old ruins.

La Antigua is a fun town to walk around in; there are lots of good restaurants. The central plaza has an unusual fountain where water squirts from women's breasts. Volcanoes surround the city. At breakfast, a huge plume of smoke hissed from one of them.

I went on an excursion to Volcán Picaya and hiked up to the lava fields.

Copan

The Copan Ruins are well worth seeing. The Mayans worked on the city for about six hundred years. They are not as large as Chitzen Itzen, but the sculpture is better preserved and more intricate. Most of the best work has been moved inside the museum for better protection. Some of the names ascribed to kings are humorous, like 18 Rabbit. That´s a name the Artist formerly known as Prince could consider. I spent the better part of a day wandering around and enjoyed all of it.

I also visited Macaw Mountain, a home for orphan birds. People get exotic birds for pets and for one reason or another decide they don´t want to keep them. Macaw Mountain takes them. Because they are no longer tame, they can´t be released back into the wild. After stalking birds in the jungle for days on end it was funny to have them perch on my shoulder--no need for a telephoto lens.

Friday, April 18--next stop, home

Friday, April 18. I am flying home tomorrow morning. I am in Guatemala City after visiting Antigua, Lago de Atitlán, Semuc Champey and Tikal. I have been off the Internet grid since Antigua and am way behind on posting. I still can't upload photos. I hope to catch up over the next few days, although my ISP left me a message saying my connection is down at home.... After that, I will work on my better photos and provide  final comments on the trip. Thanks for following the travelogue and my apologies for slow posting.

map, Guatemala

Gracias

 The town of Gracias, formerly known as Gracias a Dios, is an old, sleepy, little town surrounded by picturesque mountains. At one time in the early 1500s, it was the Spanish capitol for Central America. Here, the Spanish squashed the indigenous rebellion led by Limpira by offering him peace terms and then assassinating him. The basic Honduran currency is based upon the ¨limpira.¨

I visited Balneario Aguas,Termales. The locals in the bus insisted I must go there. I was reluctant because these are hot springs and I was already hot enough from the sun

La Esperanza

 I knew I was off the tourist path when I signed into the hotel. The two open pages of the ledger were almost full. I was guest 98. Under the column ¨Pais,¨ the first person had written Honduras. From guest 2 to guest 97, there were ditto marks. I wrote, EE.UU.

I took a bus from LaGuama to Taulabé to see the caves. The caves are reportedly at least 12 km long. Visitors get to see the first 400 to 600 meters. They are very impressive with large chambers.

Lago de Yojoa

Lago de Yojoa is a large natural lake, 17 km long and 9 km wide. The Hotel Agua Azul is a resort on the lake with cabins and a restaurant. There are docks with boats and kayaks and lots of birds. I went kayaking and hiking. I went to Catarata de Pulhapanzak, a 43 metre high cascade--well worth seeing.

Getting There--I took a tourist bus from Tegucipalpa to La Palma and a local bus to the hotel on Lago de Yojoa.

Lodging--The Hotel Agua Azul is worth staying at for at least a couple of nights. The cabins have just the right amount of funk. The food is good. The views and birds are great.

Tegucigalpa

I stayed a couple of nights in the Capitol of Honduras and enjoyed the sites in the City Center and learned the story of the statue of the Virgin de Suyapa and Don Pepe´s Men´s Room. At dinner, Hondurans cheered as their team beat the U.S. in futból.

Tegucigalpa is the capitol of Honduras. The pronunciation includes the English word ¨goose.¨ The city center is safe for tourists (in the day). Squads of tourist police, city police, national police and military are everywhere. Pharmacies and other stores have private guards and bars between their customers and the merchandise. I did feel safe in the central park (Plaza Morazón) near the cathedral and spent several restful hours people-watching. The temperature was perfect.

Estelí

I had some difficulties related to traveling during Holy Week, but saw a procession for Good Friday. In Estelí, I visited a small one room museum about the Nicaraguan revolution and the Sandinistas.

I had been warned that the country slows down for Holy Week and that Thursday and Friday are particularly slow. On the advice of La Selva Negra staff, I took a taxi to Matagalpa (rather the the bus) . I planned to take the bus from Matagalpa to Estelí. However, all the buses had stopped running. I hired the driver to take us to Estilí. On the way, I saw tons and tons of coffee in bags waiting to be exported. I also saw an entire valley of rice.

In Estelí, I could only find one open restaurant. Everyone was in

La Selva Negra

When I first hear about La Selva Negra, I did not think I wanted to go there. How improbable--a German resort in the middle of Nicaragua. But after several positive reports, I went. As anticipated, there were German tourists, but most of the guests were Nicaraguan. They take great pride in the resort and consider it a national destination.

La Selva Negra is a coffee plantation settled by German immigrants in the nineteenth century. The area reminded them of the Black Forest in their homeland. It now has a hotel, restaurant and resort accommodations. It is high in the mountains and encased in clouds. At 65 degrees, I felt chilly after living for weeks at 85 to 95 degrees.

Matagalpa

 The Museo de Cafe is interesting and the town has an authentic feeling untouched by tourism. Ruben Dario, a famous poet, was born here.

I took a taxi to Moyagalpa on the north end of the Island of Ometepe, took a ferry to San Jorge, a taxi to Rivas, a local bus to the capitol, Managua, and an express bus to Matagalpa. Matagalpa is about 2,000 feet in altitude and considerably cooler than the coast. The town is nestled in the mountains and is a center for coffee shipments.

I stayed in the Hotel Alvarado. My hosts are very friendly. The family is a family of physicians. Both Noe Garcia and his wife are physicians as well as a father, mother, aunt, uncle, son and grandson. There is variability in the rooms; we got the one under construction.

Isla de Ometepe

I am floating on my back in Lake Nicaragua. I slowly tread water with my arms and legs. My nose, mouth and eyes are above water. The cool water feels good after the hot humid afternoon. I open my eyes and see the new moon shining above in the clear, blue sky. I turn my head to the right and see the older volcano. I turn my head to the left and see the newer volcano. This is Isla de Ometepe.

I took a ferry from Granda to the Isla de Ometepe. The ferry left almost two hours late and took about four hours

Granada

After being away from home for a month, Grenada was a good time to catch up. I stayed at the hotel Patio del Malineche in the colonial area. The city was built by the Spanish in the 1500s. The hotel claims the foundation stones for the first courtyard are original. They are basalt and certain look like the could be that old. An American, William Walker, seized power in Nicaragua during the late 1800s and ordered the city burned in his hasty retreat.

They have good Internet access and the operating system supports AJAX, so I could access the website I needed. It was fun to walk around and look at the old buildings and churches.

San Jose

 From Tortuguero, I took a 5 a.m. boat ride to connect with a bus to take a bus to take a bus to San Jose. I didn't see much of San Jose because I took a 5 a.m. international bus in the morning to Granada, Nicaragua.

Scam? When I first arrived in San Jose, a taxi driver immediately latched on to us and said the international bus terminal had moved and the hotel we planned to stay at would put us too far away for a morning departure. He recommended another hotel that would be closer to the new terminal.

I had read in the guide book and been warned

Tortuguero

Tortuguero is in the middle of nowhere on the Costa Rican Caribbbean coast. You can only get there by boat or plane. There are lots of tourists here--more tourists than turtles.

I rented a canoe and went on an aquatic trail early in the morning in the Parque Nacional Tortuguero. Part of the trail is closed to motors, so I left the tourists behind. The channel narrows and finally ends. In places, I had to squeeze the canoe under