Well, we are now in Antigua, Guatemala; just resting for a day after the last few nights of little sleep (Jordan will cover that in his next post on TIKAL). But my job is to tell you about the wonderful, beautiful, rustic, friendly country of El Salvador, even though we were only there for 2 nights.
It took a lot of pushing on my part to go to El Salvador as were very crunched for time on our way to Guatemala. I had always wanted to go because when I worked at Delfinos, all of the cooks were from El Salvador; it was really what sparked my interest in Latin America. Unfortunately, however, El Salvador is slightly out of the way when heading towards Guatemala; and out of all the Central American countries, it is the least touristy and the least visited. But my pushing won out and we hopped on an 11 hour bus in Managua that went straight to the capital, San Salvador.
San Salvador was a delight. The cab drivers didn’t try to rip us off (like in Nicaragua), a random man stopped and hugged us as we were trekking to our hotel (ok, he might have been drunk, not really sure), people didn’t hassle us for taxi rides, hotels, and tours, and people were always more than ready to help out with directions or information. I believe the friendliness of the people owes itself in part to the fact that El Salvador has not yet been jaded by tourism; therefore, people are always ready to help and show a genuine interest in you. Anyway, our hotel, Hotel Florida, was lovely and a great place to rest after so much travelling. That night, we set out for the mall where we enjoyed Pizza Hut and TCBY (we are such Westerners, I know!)
The following morning we set out for the small Colonial Town of Suchitoto. This town is where all of my old Delfinos coworkers were from so I had heard all these stories about how great it was. Suchitoto did not disapoint! Granted, there was not much in the way of tourist activities there, but I think that was part of the charm. When we checked into the hotel, the lady who owned it had her husband give us a ride to the lake (we didn’t even have to ask). As though that wasn’t enough kindness, she gave us a huge plastic bag with her family’s swim suits and towels for us to use (we had left most of our luggage in San Salvador). Later that night, this little boy tried to teach us how to spin a-top-on-a-string thing, and was cracking us up as he made fun of Jordan’s many unsuccesful tries. He would go around showing people (all that night and the next morning) how Jordan threw the top. It was HILARIOUS! Between interacting with him, eating in laid back restaurants, hanging out at the lake, and browsing in all of the Artesian shops, the best we can describe Suchitoto is TRANQUILO (we have agreed that there is no sufficient English equivalent to this word). Jordan also said that the town might win the “Friendliest Award” out of all the towns he’s been to on his entire trip!
So all and all, we were only able to spend 2 days in El Salvador. But it was enough to win me over to the county; I hope to go back some day and maybe do some volunteer/mission work of some kind. While El Salvador might not be a top tourist draw, its richest resource is definetly the people! Love it, love it!
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Hey all! Well, we are now in the laid back paradise town of Boca del Toro. It is unbelievable here; beautiful coral reefs, blue water, bare feet, and chill bars that have Christmas lights and play Jack Johnson. I keep wondering how in the world I was able to end up here, its awesome!
Well, as Adam stated, Panama City was quite an adventure. The flood was quite an adventure indeed; it was no exageration to say that the water went ankle deep. I had a book on the floor and it actually floated to the other end of the room! Wouldn´t change a thing though, except for maybe the hotel room, that place was actually quite disgusting! Anyway, we left Panama City for the 2nd largest city in Panama, David. While Panama has 700,000 people, the second largest city only has 70,000; so we found it a nice change of pase to the craziness of the big city! On the way over, these border patrol (even though we weren´t crossing the border) stopped us and did an incredibly thorough drug search. There was a dog that had to sniff out our bus, luggage, and carry-ons. I was paranoid, what if somebody slipped something in my bag like in Brokedown Palace or something. But, we were all clean (big sigh of relief). And there was a nice old lady who made sure to tell us that they were checking for Drogas, as though we couldn´t figure it out when a giant German Shepard began sniffing all our belongings!
Once in David, we stayed in a nice hostel called the Purple House, and no joke, EVERYTHING was purple. The walls, the clock, the sheets, the curtains, the nicknacks, the dishes, everything! It was very relaxing, and I enjoyed a morning of coffee (not the instant kind!) and reading my book.
Unfortanely, we could only spend one night in the Purple House before hopping on another bus to Bocas del Toro. This bus ride was only about 4 hours and for the most part was absolutely beautiful. I didn´t realize that Panama had so many highlands! We passed through mist covered mountains and got a little break from the intense heat and humidity from the lowlands. Anyway, Bocas del Toro is a town on Isla Colon, one of the may islands in the archipelago. After hotel shopping for a while, we stumbled on Hotel Brisas, a hotel that sits right on the water and has a huge deck with hammocks, chairs, and (to Jordan and Adams great pleasure), a giant water trampoline! Since we arrived late, we just hung out for a while at a very chill bar drinking Sangria and beer (and playing pinochle of course), and then back to the hotel where Jordan and I stared out at all the boats in the night and relaxing in the gentle Caribbean breeze (am I making anyone jealous yet)? :O)
Today, we all rented kayaks for 4 hours and paddled around this island near Isla Colon. It was the first time any of us have been REAL Ocean kayaking, meaning that you have to deal with currents and breaking waves. We did fine though, although I am so feeling the burn in my arms (and when i say burn, i mean my muscles. Although Jordan and Adam may have a different interpretation, I was the only one who decided to wear sunscreen!) The highlight of the trip was this small deserted beach we found where we ended up just playing around in the water and looking at bright colored fishies! These beaches were gorgeous, I mean they were the whole deal, palm trees, coconuts, and all!
Well, thats all for now. Off for some ice cream and perhaps more cards. Tomorrow we are taking an all day tour that will take us by some dolphins and let us snorkel in some (hopefully) great reefs. Love to all, and of course, more to follow!
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Hey All! Its Amanda making an appearance on the boy´s famous website. I thought I would give them a little break from the writing and make a post myself. It was so good to finally be in South America and meet up with my brother and Adam, I could hardly believe it when I saw them at the airport, I was half expecting to get there and be totally on my own! (Me of little faith). But of course they were there and greatly impressed me by their Spanish skills when hailing a taxi back to our hostel.
For the first full day in Quito, we decided to hit up Old Town, the more historic and architecturally interesting section of town. The definate highlight was our trip into The Basillica. It is this hugely imposing, gothic style church that looks like it belongs right out of medieval Europe or something. It sits high up on a hill in Old Town so its steeples are visable from many different areas of town. When we got there, we weren´t sure we wanted to go in; it cost $2 and the boys had seen so many churches at this point that it didn´t seem like it would be anything new. But boy were we wrong! This church rivaled many that I had seen in Europe; huge gothic arches, giant stainglass windows…but the best part was that they let you climb up very high into the bell tower. Now, had this church been in America, I´m pretty sure this climb would have been a major hazard and would be roped off. But lucky for us, it wasn´t. We climbed up these steel ladders, amazed at every level that they were letting us go even higher up the tower! When we finally reached the top level, we found that the floor was made of metal beams and mesh…It was quite nerve racking actually. And then of course, they had this little ledge you could crawl out on and look over the city…and of course, Jordan and Adam had to go full out on it and totally freak me out. I just sat and looked out over the city instead, preffering to keep both of my feet INSIDE the church. On the way down from the tower, we stopped at this little cafe that had an amazing view of Quito; I mean seriously, these views rivaled ones you might see from the Space Needle. Except, our lunch cost about $2 a person instead of $50.
The next day, we took a ´Journey to the Center of the World´, quite literally. We decided to visit El Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world. They have this amusement park type setting, minus the rides, where you can walk up and down a red painted equator and jump back and forth between hemispheres. But first, we had to figure out the crazy Quito bus system. Basically, you just stand on the side of the street were it says ´parada´ and wait for the bus you want to come zooming along. You quite literally have to flag the bus down as you would flag down a taxi. So once we found the bus to El Mitad del Mundo, and rode it for 45 minutes, we hopped off at the last stop. But alas, no Middle of the World was to be found. We did see a sign, however, that pointed to the direction of our destination. So we started walking, and then we walked some more, and then we kept walking down this busy highway; but still, no middle of the world. Finally, we asked how far it was and found out that it was over another hour of a walk. We were supposed to have switched buses and continued on, ahh, at least we know that now. So we hailed down another bus and the rest of the journey was uneventful. Once we were at El Mitad del Mundo, there was little to do but jump back and forth between the hemispheres. The funniest thing was that when we were in the Southern hemisphere it was Winter, and when we crossed this red line on the ground it was Summer. It was crazy feeling! And all and all, a very fun time was by all.
And then yesterday. Oh, that was a fun day. Actually, most of the day was spent at the Internet Cafe trying to decide what we were going to do about going to/bypassing Colombia. (We decided to take a flight straight to Panama City as that will save us time and will keep us quite a bit safer). Well, after a while, I started to feel restless. I mean, its my 3rd day in South America and I want to do something I´ve never done before! So I tell the boys, lets take a Salsa Class. To be honest, I just wanted to walk around and look at prices, I didn´t expect to find a place that would give us a spur of the moment lesson…but it turns out we found one right away. And let me tell you, it was a blast! We learned 5 different steps and then started in on partner dancing. Oh, I´m sure so many people would like to see a video of us attempting to do Salsa, but pictures will have to do. Trust me, I just crack up thinking about it. We had to do all these turns and we kept going the wrong way. And then Jordan with his Robot Arms…haha! It was so nice of the boys to humor me though and join in. I guess there is a Salsa Club in Antigua, Guatemala. I said that we should keep taking classes in all of the major cities and make it a goal to wow everyone on the dance floor. The boys say maybe we should aim at competancy instead… Anyway, afterwards we hung out at this bar for a while and shared this huge Jarra of Pilsner. It was a blast!
Anyway, now we are in Riobamba, a town 4 hours south of Quito and very high up in the Andes. We leave very early tomorrow morning for a train that will take us down El Nariz del Diablo, The Devil´s Nose. It should be pretty fun as we get to sit on top of the boxcar! More to follow on that of course. Our plan is to continue to make our way to Guayaquil where we will catch a plane on Sunday to Panama City. Love to all!
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