This weeks round up..... Our last day in Antigua was spent drinking more coffee and soaking up more culture. We visited the city's ruined cathedral, most of which was destroyed in an earthquake in 1773. Only a small portion has been fully restored and is still used today for services, the rest is partially restored so has a mixture of old and new architecture...
During our stay in Antigua we had the most amazing banana bread, baked in this little cafe every day at around 2.00pm, throughout the week we ate a fair amount of this delicious bread and we were sure to stock up on our last day in Antigua ready for our 4.00am start to Copan in Honduras.
We always knew that during our trip we would have to get up early sometimes to catch buses but we didn't expect 4.00am to be such a popular hour for shuttle buses (we discovered that if we wanted to go to Copan we pretty much HAD to leave at 4.00am) however the advantage to this early rise meant that we arrived in Honduras at 10.00am just in time for breakfast!
Copan or it's formal name Copan Ruinas is a small town famed mainly for its Maya Ruins...the ruins were cool and the site was home to hundreds of red macaws! (a reintroduction programme- which was nice to see!!) Sorry we don't have any accessible photos of the ruins, but we've been to a fair few now so you probably get the gist!
During our stay in Copan we spent a very enjoyable day at a coffee plantation. A really friendly farmer, Carlos, showed us around his family's farm which has been producing coffee and cardamom since the 1930s and more recently cacoa. We learnt a LOT about coffee, cacao and cardamom and were treated to a traditional Honduran lunch during our visit which of course was all produce from the farm. I'm afraid that we were far too engrossed in learning about coffee to take and photos but here's a link to the website so you get the idea...,
We finished off the day with a visit to some natural hot springs, again sorry no photos but here's a link! Felt amazing to relax and cleanse our 7 sins... A series of pools ending in unbearingly hot pool and then freezing cold - not that of course we have any sins to rid!!!!
After our two day stint in Honduras, we found out we were in for another 4.00am start, this time a 16hour bus journey to Leon, Nicaragua. Usually the prospect of this kind of journey would make me want to scratch my eyes out, but this was probably the most comfortable mini bus we have ever been on, EVER! With aircon films and wifi we were happy as Larry. The bus took us on an odd route back up to Guatemala down to El Salvador back into Honduras and then finally to Nicaragua. At around 6.00pm we arrived in Leon. We only had enough energy to find our hotel and grab some local tacos before bed....
Leon is an interesting city with far less tourists than previous towns and cities we've visited. Our host, Monica gave us lots of tips about places to see and things to do so we spent the next day wandering around and taking in the sights. Evidence of the cities harsh history exists around every corner and during our stay we stumbled actoss the below mural featuring the students uprising against the dictatorship during the seventies...
We also visited the famed Myths and Legends museum hosted in the former Prison 21, full of eery puppets and sickening stories of tortures that were commonplace during the prisons' operation...
Note the grey painting behind depicting what captives may have been doing in each room
After two brief nights we left Leon which brings us to today.... We travelled 3 hours south to Laguna de Apoyo a community around a Laguna which has formed in the crater of a volcano, very cool!
We finish our post enjoying a beer whilst looking over the Laguna...
The weeks highlights:
Best Food: Banana bread from Dona Luisa Xicotencatl, traditional Guatemalan turkey stew, fried yukka, pupusas and broccoli soup in Antigua, Guatemala (food at the coffee plantation mentioned above... but in brief, homegrown cacao, banana fried in cream with homegrown cardamom... You get the picture!) and tortilla soup in Copan
Best View: Views of the Honduran mountains on the very bumpy ride up
to the coffee plantation, along with seeing new things... Cashew nut, cacoa, cardamom and avocado trees... Love seeing where our food comes from!!!
Lesson learned: Rubbing black tea on a sun burn encourages it to go brown and less pink!!!
Best answer to a question: Rachel says to Lisa... "Ohhh... Maybe I could buy you some wet shoes for swimming?!".... Lisa " yeah (puzzled look!!) ... Or maybe you could get me something I actually want!! Why would I want wet shoes... Maybe dry ones at least!!" :-)
Best company: During our time in Belize we met a lovely couple Nick and Marie, who are also travelling Central and South America, we met up with them again in Antigua and again bumped into them when picking them up in El Salvador on the shuttle bus to Leon, many beers and laughs had! Hi guys!
Hours on a bus: 23.5
Loaves of Dona Luisas banana bread eaten: 1.5
Borders crossed: 5 (this is mostly due to the 16 hour journey to Leon!)
Love Monday Funday: Drinking cocktails next to a volcano crater lake...
Have a great week guys,
Big Love Lisa and Rach xxx
P.s. Colin says hi (he's clearly getting drunk on cerveza tona!!) and promises to feature in next weeks edition!! X
Thanks for another update ladies.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a foodie & coffee dream - more crater/ volcano news please.
Happy Monday xxx