We spent a couple of days driving around Nicaragua and the city of Managua. We were greatly surprised by what we saw, and it is definitely a place to visit, not only for the landscape and the countryside, but also to check the advances after the revolution.
To leave Managua we took the Carretera Sur (aka Panamericana), and this one climbs continually during 8 miles to the town of El Crucero, up the mountains. It took a couple of hours to reach the border, at Peñas Blancas. No main problem to exit Nicaragua, but it took another two hours under the sun to pass the Costa Rican controls. They were very professional and knew what to do, but for some reason they had a line up of some 300 tourists waiting to enter or exit the country. On top of that, there was a long line of trucks (for sure more than 50) wating to exit Costa Rica.
We spent the night at the city of Liberia, on the northern part of Costa Rica.
A friend recommended us a visit to the Orchid Garden, in Santa Elena, so we headed there early in the morning. The Orchid Garden has a ver good variety of regional orchids, most of them very minute and very different than the orchids normally on sale at a flower shop.
They explained the details of a real orchid: three sepals, three petals, and a center column with the reproductive elements. The lower petal is deformed and colored to attract the polinizers (insects or birds). All very interesting and makes anxious for more information.
The Garden was good and we recommend it. However, the roads to get there are the worst. We took the access from Las Juntas to Monteverde, all unpaved, and it took us almost three hours jumping over the big rocks of the road to make just 12 miles. On the return trip we took another road through El Sardinal, and this one was slightly better. Overall we drove less than 70 miles, but we ended up completely exhausted, so we decided to spend the night at Esparza, near San Jose.
Probably many people already know how nice is the country of Costa Rica, so there is no much for me to add in this regard. Plenty of green everywhere, many tourists, and hot and humid weather.
here are some of our latest pictures:
A view from the top the mountains on our way to Santa Elena, near Monteverde
An orchid in the act of being polinized.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
from Guatemala to Nicaragua
Lake Atitlan, in Guatemala. Two volcanos on the right side, and a couple of towns on its shores.
Public transport in Guatemala. Some 20 people on board a small Nissan truck, at full speed over the potholes.
Cows crossing the road in El Salvador. A very common, and dangerous, sight.
Landscape along the road in Honduras. Overall it is much drier and hotter than Guatemala.
Volcan Momotombo in Northern Nicaragua, on the road from Esteli to Leon.
Basilica of La Asuncion, in Leon, Northern Nicaragua.
This construction has heavy, thick walls because of seismic activity. The poet Ruben Dario is buried in this place.
Another view of Volcan Momotombo and, in the background, volcan Momotombito, on the shores of Lake Managua. The later is on a small island of its own.
Monday, January 23, 2012
From Guatemala to Nicaragua.
We drove from the ruins at Tikal to Guatemala City, and we had a good chance to see this beautiful country. The mountainous terrain is all covered with green, planted to the top of the hills with all sort of crops. There are mountain rivers and great lakes.
We stayed at an hotel Guatemala City's old city center, but we didn't like very much, so now we will continue as planned to visit the volcanos on our way to Lake Atitlan, some 100 miles north of Guatemala City.
However, one thing is to plan and the other to successfully complete the plan.
To start, we spent more than two hours to get into Guatemala City, and then four more hours to get out of there. The traffic is the worst by far, the streets are too narrow, there are no rules, bus engines are too smoky, and pedestrian struggle in the middle of this mess. Definitely, Guatemala City is a place to avoid. In fact, there is a big contrast between Guatemalan cities and the countryside. The later is absolutely gorgeous, neat, and well kept, which cannot be said of the cities.
Lake Atitlan was defined as the best lake in the entire world by Aldous Huxley. However, the lake and the nearby volcanos were covered by smog so we were unable to see either one.
Now talking of more serious issues. It is really hard for me to talk of the travel incidents and the nice of bad sights we have along the way without also observing how people lives and the surrounding environment. Some of the things are soo bad that I cannot refrain from making a comment. For example, driving in Guatemala's countryside we saw way too much poverty, too many kids working on the farms instead of being at the school, people too old to work still carrying big, heavy loads, and way too much child labor. For example, a girl about 6 years old carrying a big load of firewood, or a boy about 9 years old along the road cleaning a guter with a shovel. The contrast between the standard of living of the normal worker and the way of life of the rich is too sharp to be ignored, and makes you wonder what is the government doing to improve the lot of the poor.
From Guatemala we went to El Salvador, where we stopped overnight in the town of Zacatecoluca. We arrived there very late and asked a police agent where can we find an hotel. He sent us to a nearby hotel and when we got there we found it to be an "auto hotel", the type of places used by couples in search of some intimacy. In any case, the place was very cheap and comfortable so we put all concerns aside and had a great stay there.
From Zacatecoluca we drove into Honduras and then into Nicaragua in the same day. The main problem is at border crossings. I think that agents are ill prepad for the tasks, so we spend long time negotiating our exit from one pace and entry into the next. typically there are crowds of men offering to help with the paperwork, even when there is nothing as complex to require special help.
What we saw from Nicaragua so far was very good. We expected an impoverished country worst than even El Salvador or Honduras, but we were surprised because the standard of living seems to be significantly higher than in those countries. The roads are in optimum shape, there is no much poverty along the road, and people dress very neatly. There are plenty of public schools, which means that the government is doing much better than other countries we found in our trip.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
from Tikal to lake Atitlan
lake Peten, near Tikal, in northern Guatemala. We spent a couple of nights in this very relaxing place.
A view of the countryside in Giatemala. The entire country looks like that, with mountains covered with vegetation of all sorts.
Entering the town of Panajachel, close to lake Atitlan.
A Maya indian carrying a heavy load. Young and old people as well as children are usually seen with this type of burden.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
From Chichen Itza to Tikal
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza was at the center of the Maya empire. It Concentrated all the economic and military power, and other cities subordinated to them. The buildings reflect the nature of the city itself. They are more serious looking buildings, with decorations reminding of their role as a regional power. Warriors, snakes, and skulls abound. They have a huge ball court in optimum conditions. The captain of the winning team was sacrificed, and this was an honour for them to participate on these games. There is also a cenote (a huge natural water well) used for ceremonials and human sacrifices. Overall, it is not a cheerful city such as Palenque, for example.
On Mexican roads and drivers:
Generally speaking, roads in Mexico are excellent. There are some exceptions in secondary roads, but overall the traffic is safe and drivers seem to be well trained.
We choose to drive on secondary roads so we can learn more about the daily life of Mexican people, therefore we drove through every single small town. There is no mayor problem in doing so, except that each town has speed bumps which make our trip so much slower. However, we have our rewards when we pass through nice towns such as Kantunil, on our road to Chetumal.
Chetumal is the capital city of Quintana Roo state. This is another neat city on the same style as others in the Yucatan peninsula.
On January 17th we visited the ruins at Calakmul. This was another major city, and apparently it was as important as Chichen Itza. Calakmul is in the middle of the jungle and it is not so easy to get there. From Chetumal we drove west for almost two hours, then south for 13 miles on a narrow winding road bordered by plain jungle. We arrived at a parking place where we left our car and continued our trip forward on a shuttle for another 26 miles, getting very close to the border with Guatemala. Once in Calakmul we had to walk a while until we arrived to the first ruins. The place seems to be still in the discovery phase, but it is well maintained. The trail that takes you through the different circuits runs under a tall tree canopy where we were lucky to see black spider monkeys right atop of us. Also many wild big multicolored pheasants.
The most noticeable feature of Calakmul is the amount of stellae (some 120) covered with hieroglyphics.
At the parking lot where we left our car there is a small museum showing fosils of prehistoric animals found in the area.
Overal we had a good impression of Calakmul. We should have arrived some time earlier in order to spent more time on the site. An advice for future visitors: it takes between 3 and 4 hours to visit the place, plus one more hour from the main entrance on route 186, therefore plan to arrive very early to the site, otherwise you will run out of time to visit the entire place.
Belize
On January 18th we crossed from Chetumal into Belize. Quite frankly, "we were not amussed". The place is very poor and unappealing, and I have the impression that they are still a colony, not from the British but from multinational corporations. The northern part is covered with sugar can plantations while the central part has more variety. It seems that the government does not provide public education, because there is an unbelievably amount of private religious schools, organized by a variety of religious organizations from abroad. From the border we drove to Belize City, then to Belmopan, and then to San Ignacio, and we didn't like what we saw. Besides impoverished people, we saw many religious groups and churches, and tourists. Ignorance + poverty + religion: what a bad mixture!
We rushed to get out of the country, which we accomplished in just 6 hours.
Guatemala
Everything changed once we drove into Guatemala. We went to an hotel by a lake in El Remate, near the ruins of Tikal. The hotel setting, the lake, the temperature, the food, the beer, everything was perfect.
Now talking of Maya ruins: Along with Palenque, Tikal is one the best places we saw so far. It is located in the middle of a dense jungle, and there are paths taking you through the different parts of the city. The design of the buildings, the decorations in stuco and stone, the general layout of the city, and the jungle covering the entire place makes it one of my favorites.
Specially, Temple #5: It has the shape of a truncated pyramid, not too tall but with a simple design. It is like a multiple layers' wedding cake, composed of seven blocks on top of each other, each one about 3 meters high. Each block is smaller than the previous one, and with almost vertical walls. It is crowned with a big monument which cannot be reached by the stairs. The stair itself has a steep angle, like all mayan pyramids.
There is plenty of wild life, and we were able to spot a variety of monkeys, coaties, turkeys, and birds. Definitely, I would recommend a visit to Tikal.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
January 15 - In Merida
We spent the weekend in Merida, just to recover and get some energies before continuing with our expeditions. Merida is a nice and modern city, with an historical center that keeps a reminder of the brutality of the spanish conquest. The first conquistador was Francisco Montejo. Along with his son, Francisco Montejo, and his nephew, Francisco Montejo, they took care of destroying the local maya city and building their own replacement palaces. They dismantled the local piramids and used the stones to build the cathedral on one side of the plaza. On the other side they built the Montejo residency with an impressive fachade proclaiming who was the strong man of this place. What is surprising is that even today the main avenues, boulevards, and neighbourhoods, are named after Mr. Montejo.
On the main plaza we also have the Government Palace. The inside patio and first floor is decorated with huge murals by Fernando Castro Pacheco describing the history of the Mayas and their progress into the XX century.
Today, Sunday, we visited the ruins at Uxmal. This was an extense city that is most notable for the beauty of its decorations. The city was built on low hills, so the buildings are at different levels. The buildings are decorated with abstract and idealized representations of jaguars, eagles, guacamayas, turtles, and snakes. Their artistry was at the same level as their building skills.
As always, there is scant information on the place, making the visitor's life more difficult.
Tomorrow we will move on to Chichen Itza and the city of Valladolid.
Here is internal patio on the entrance to the Government Palace.
Francisco Montejo's Residency.
Zooming on the front shows interesting details, such as the heads over which stand the conquistadores.
Uxmal: The Soothsayer's pyramid
A building with feathers and guacamayas, in the Quadrangle of the Birds.
Details of the guacamayas
Friday, January 13, 2012
Campeche to Merida
Saturday, January 7, 2012
from Pachuca
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
We will update the blog probably a couple of times per week, so keep an eye open for the latest news.
To access our itinerary please click here: Planned itinerary