Auntie Aoife - eeek!!!

Sitting in an internet cafe one morning (yes, I do get withdrawal symptoms sometimes) I opened an email from Máire, which kicked off in bright pink huge font ´You´re going to be an Aunty´. Yup, I was pretty blown away. So thrilled and delighted for both Máire & Victor, but twinged with a little sadness that my big sis is going to glow through a pregnancy and I won´t be around for any of it. So another bloody O´Mahony November birthday, as if the month wasn´t expensive enough anyway, cheers Maur!!

There are times like that when it´s a little strange to be on the road and completely dependent on one person for your entire social interaction. Dave & I are both suffering a little traveller´s fatigue so that day was a little strange to be so far away from my family.

I guess the creation of a new life makes you think of the cycle of life and inevitably those who have left it, so Timmy is never far from my thoughts. This trip has certainly opened up thoughts and chambers in my head that were firmly shut for the last couple of years. I have no doubt it´s cathartic, but completely disorienting at times to go through that so far away from everything.

Anyway, that´s my kimono opening done for this broadcast...

Costa Rica...a little later than originally planned!

Considering our original plans for Central America were to hit Belize, Guatemala & Costa Rica, finding ourselves in both Honduras & Nicaragua was not factored in to any schedule we have. I guess that´s why very quickly we figured out that a schedule is a silly thing to have on a trip like this anyways. Our time in Honduras & Nicaragua, albeit brief, was really special and definitely some highlights so far, so we´re really glad they were en route.

Lenny & Catherine, another couple of Irish rat-race escapees, who we first met in Grenada showed up in San Juan so a debaucherous night of copious amounts of Nicaraguan rum ensued, finished off of course by a swim at 4am. Needless to say the appeal of doing the border crossing to Costa Rica the next morning got postponed another day as we nursed a very nasty hangover.

So we eventually packed our bags again and headed for the border after a brief enchanting encounter with Nicaragua. It´s definitely a country of people who have been through an awful lot and now with their new president, Ortega, chumming up with Chavez and Cuba, Nicas are quite afraid that all the Americans looking for a better bargain than they can find in Costa Rica will look elsewhere to spend their dollars. I have no doubt that if I went back to San Juan del Sur in three years time it would be completely different.


Leaving the dry, parched Nicaraguan soil the lushness of Costa Rica which literally changes as you cross the border was a sensual treat. As green as any Irish landscape, albeit slightly more tropical, it was gorgeous to see the land dripping with life. A week later and about 32 inches of rain, my appetite for rain has changed slightly. So Costa Rica is the most expensive country we´ve been in so far because they´ve managed to attract tourists for a lot longer than their more turbulent Central American neighbours. Is it worth it? Maybe, if all I was to see of Central America was Costa Rica, I would be pretty impressed but considering what I´ve already seen it´s not as an amazing experience as I thought it would be.


We headed straight for the Nicoya peninsula to look for more surf (nope, still didn´t make that barrel) and after a couple of nights in a relatively commercial Tamarindo (Cancun it ain´t, but wasn´t in a rush to stay either) we headed south to Mal País. Despite being Central America´s most expensive country, it officially has the worst roads. One 30km trip we had to make took over 2 hours, seriously!!


En route we hooked up with Scott & Alex, a Canadian couple from British Columbia, who we had lots of giggles with for the last week. The weather turned in to the equivalent of a month of Irish rain each night, so we had to get pretty creative with our leisure time. (Apologies for those of you who have busy, stressful lives at the mo, I feel your pain!) We stayed in this huge hostel in Santa Teresa, where for the first time in about two months we could flush toilet paper and have a hot shower. It´s the little things you miss sometimes.

In between surfing some gnarly (cheers Scott!) waves, we rented ATV´s and took off for a hilarious day to Montezuma. Needless to say the boys need for speed and the dodgy roads were an entertaining combination. We hiked up a river to some beautiful waterfalls and then bumped in to Lenny & Catherine again in Montezuma.

So we hooked up with them again the next day (Champions League is very important on a round the world trip) and had a very productive afternoon of drinking beer, learning to juggle (Dave), learning new card games (Geneva) and giggling.

Officially the most low maintenance wedding I´ve ever been to...

We moved from San Juan del Sur town out to stay in a hostel called Matilda´s out on the surf beach with great intentions of catching our first barrel (for those of you who know my athletic ability, you can tell how successful that effort was!). It takes 45 minutes on a dirt track to get out there and there´s virtually nothing out on those beaches so it was absolute bliss for 4 days of sunrise and sunset surfs, filling the sweltering middle hours of the day devouring books in a hammock.

A couple of hours after we arrived we saw a guy walk in to the hostel with a big bunch of flowers. Dave asked him if he was in trouble or something, his replied ´no dude, I´m getting married at 5 o´clock). So that´s how we met Dwayne & Tracy and ended up at their wedding on the beach. In fact Dave got seconded as their photographer!

So after exchanging vows, with the help of a local to direct them through, they were married and we spent the rest of the evening, chilling out around a bonfire under the stars with everybody else from the hostel who ended up being part of the wedding party too. No, we didn´t get any ideas of doing anything similar, as saccharine sweet as it was, it wouldn´t be my way of getting hitched...I´d be too sad that my family and friends weren´t there to share it with me. It definitely was a very special day.

Mi cumpleaños!!

Had an absolutely gorgeous day for me burfday (David, my bro, thank you so much for bootiful card!)...we´ve been in Nicaragua since Sunday, spent a couple of days in Granada, which is really nice. I much preferred it to Antigua. Did a really cool volcano hike, got to look in a crater and see magma sloshing around 2000m below. Met up with a lahvley Irish couple who are doing pretty similar trip but have just spent 6 months in South America including Christmas in Antarctic which just sounded mind-blowing.



Chicken bussed it down to San Juan del Sur, surf town on the Pacific coast the morning of my bday. Poor Dave under mad pressure to sort out the day and a pressie, considering we´re in each others company most of the time, no easy feat! He pulled it off of course and was treated like a princess! Thanks to Maura P we had a completely posh, splash-out meal in amazing restaurant looking down over the bay, my first bottle of wine in 2 months and it took 2 waiters 10 minutes to open the bottle...they don´t drink much of it around here!!

Anyway...that´s me for the mo...moving to surf beach today which is completely isolated save 45 minute dirt track...will be lots of surfing, hammock swinging and dreaming of dreams, how bad!

Muchas gracias for all the birthday wishes (including all the late ones!!)
xxx

Roatan, Bay Islands - Paradise Found!

Just resurfaced from a week spent on Roatan which is one of the Bay Islands set in the Caribbean off the coast of Honduras.

Got there via a 16 hour bus journey from Antigua back down to La Ceiba in Honduras (we got burger king as part of the meal service on the bus!!) and then after a very hot sweaty night in unpleasant La Ceiba we got the ferry out to La Ceiba. It´s funny how the length of those bus journeys never seems to daunt us but by the time we got off (having started at 3 am) you feel like you´ve done a Trans-Atlantic flight! No fights yet, but I think we´ve both just learned to be quiet after those journeys cause the littlest thing is the biggest challenge...especially after you get off the bus and attacked by the hoards of taxi drivers trying to rip you off!

So we chose to go to Roatan despite the fact that every other backpacker seems to go to Utila...Mr Paul O´Connor worked in Roatan a couple of years ago and sang its praises so that was good enough for us.


After 2 weeks of non-beach in Guatemala, by the time we got to our hostel in West End Roatan, the first peek of the Caribbean was as sweet as ever! Considering the beach was right in front of our hostel, a hammock & sweet porch right outside and a bar with the perfect sun-set and piña coladas right in front on the beach, what else d´ya need, eh?

The Bay Islands are all about diving so signed up on Monday morning for our Advanced Dive Courses. I did one dive Monday morning and nearly passed out with the pain so 1 hilarious trip to a cowboy doctor later, I was forbidden from diving for the week due to an ear infection. So while Dave headed off I was resigned to swimming the beautiful calm water, reading books, hammock swinging & cooking food (eating out here was seriously expensive, so considering we could eat like kings in Guatemala for about 2 yo-yo´s, the beanie boyfriend ordered that if I wanted to continue sipping Piña Coladas, some restraint on the food expenditure front was required!).

So, considering we were never supposed to go to Honduras at all, 5 days turned in to a week and even at that we found it hard to leave. We had a couple of hilarious nights drinking the local rum & coke down on the pier (I haven´t had a glass of wine in 2 months!!). We met a guy from Carlow there who had visited on his way to Panama 16 months ago and he´s still there...lots of people like that out there.So the Bay Islands are definitely a recommendation, thumbs up and will be going back!


Next stop Grenada, Nicaragua...2 days of travel, about 17 buses, taxis and lots of dodgy movies on the bus!

San Pedro, Chi Chi & Lake Atitlan

Eventually got out of Antigua and headed north to Lake Atitlan in a shuttle bus (anything to avoid the lunatic chicken buses who make it a rule to only overtake on corners).

Had to stop a couple of times on the way up so that they could finish the road...which meant sitting on the side of the road. Of course the entrepreneurial Guatemalans always seem to come out of the woodwork at any opportunity to sell anything from hot fudge to chickens!


To say that drugs are freely available in San Pedro is like saying it´s easy to get a pint of Guinness in Dublin! That said it is a beautiful sleepy town on the volanic lake Atitlan and we got a gorgeous rooftop room in a hostel with a view on to the lake.









On Sunday we headed up to Chi Chi which has the largest market in Guatemala twice a week. It was pretty chaotic and the bargaining was hilarious...the street was full of pigs, chickens, beautiful illuminous textiles and materials.









Monday we started spanish school, which is $60 a week for one on one tuition in beautiful gardens looking on to the lake. Dave´s loving it...not! Well, he´s definitely trying more than I thought he would...he´s back in our room diligently doing his homework now! Headed out canoeing on the lake yesterday which was ok, heading in to rainy season here so it completely clouded over. The Caribbean it ain´t!

Antigua & Volcan Pacaya

Antigua is like a larger, prettier version of Paraty in Brazil (MT you spoiled Antigua on me...). Serious amounts of backpackers and probably a little too pretty, we arrived after an overnight bus from Flores. Took us 5 hours before we got into our room in the hostel, so wasn´t exactly feeling top of the world, but they had lots of comforts we haven´t seen in a while like cappucinos & beauty salons (very important at this stage of the trip!)

Climbed a volcano an hour from Antigua called Pacaya, which was definitely the closest I have ever been to lava...no problems letting hundreds of goofy westerners up there, there have been loads of accidents.

Another chicken bus back took 3 hours cause the bus had to go at 10mph. The cyclists were beating us but it was definitely worth it.

Ended up on a big session on Saturday night in Antigua and then back to an after party with a Kiwi, Israeli and American...the music was so bad in the nightclub (nightclub = somebody´s house converted with candles). Hilarious!