Author: Libbytes
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Petroglyphs and Motorbiking on Ometepe Island
From the lagoon we got a taxi to the nearest town of Masaya. Before entering Nicaragua we’d heard that it wasn’t the safest country (only in terms of petty crime like theft etc) and we’d been advised to get tourist shuttles and avoid local transport like buses, which is what we’d done so far. But…
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Wildlife and Peace at Laguna Apoyo
Never one to follow the Gingro Trail exactly, we had a look to see if there were any lesser known spots in Nicaragua we could stay. Tourist infrastructure isn’t as well developed here, so staying in smaller towns can be a little harder, or at least pricier. But Laguna Apoyo stuck out as somewhere worth…
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Granada: Hot Streets and Cold Peaks!
Our next stop in Nicaragua was the pretty, colonial city of Granada on the shores of Lake Nicaragua and in the shadow of Mount Mombacho, another active volcano. We had booked 4 nights here as there seemed to be a lot to do in the region. We looked at public transport and all the buses…
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Viva León!
After a bleary-eyed 2:45am pickup from our apartment in El Zonte, we finally bagged the best seats on the shuttle – marginal win! With a quick stop in El Tunco to scoop up a few more travellers, we were soon winding our way towards Nicaragua, ready to trade surf towns for smoky volcanoes, political murals,…
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Facing the waves in El Zonte
We hadn’t planned to stay too long in El Salvador – more to claim back some days from staying longer than expected in Guatemala! We had planned to visit Honduras next overland on our way to Nicaragua, but just at the start of this year the Honduran government changed it’s entry requirements for British citizens…
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Surprising Santa Ana
From Juayua we got the public bus to Santa Ana, which is direct for just $0.70 each. However we had to wait a while, we heard the bus goes every hour at 10 past, so at about 11am we headed outside the hostel. We were on the street where the bus would go down, turn…
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A-maze-ing Ruta de las Flores
Our time in Guatemala was at an end, and so we booked a shuttle to take us across the border into another new country for the both of us; El Salvador. We booked with Gekko Travel, but a G Adventures bus is what eventually picked us up (about 40 minutes late). It had come from…
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Motmots, Volcanoes and Alfombras in Antigua
To get from San Marcos on Lake Atitlan to Antigua Guatemala by public bus looked like a bit of a mission, with potentially 5 different buses changing in 4 towns… So we booked a tourist shuttle to take us for Q140 each which we didn’t think was bad for such a long journey. We arrived…
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Exploring Lake Atitlan
From the city of Xela it’s only about a 2.5 hour drive to the scenic Lago Atitlan, nestled in a mountainous cloud forest region surrounded by volcanoes. We were super excited to visit. We headed to the main Xela bus terminal in a £1 Uber, and then some locals helped us find the bus to…
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Unexpected Birding in Xela
The next stop in our Guatemala adventure is the town of Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela (sheh-lah), since its original name in the Kʼicheʼ Maya language was Xelajú Noj. We wanted to come here for another slice of authenticity. Basically, we’ve heard that although Antigua Guatemala (Old Guatemala city) and the towns around Lake Atitlan…
Travel Alchemist 