Nilesh's Posterous

Pacaya Volcano Hike, Antigua,Guatemala

One the main attractions close to Antigua was trekking on, yes on a live active volcano - Pacaya volcano. The volcano has had an erruption a couple of weeks before I was there and while we did not see any lava as such, we did see lots of smoke coming out of the rocks and the sulfuric smell all over. When I went for the hike, it was pouring cats and dogs, but did not stop the expedition. They fit a whole bunch of us tourists at the back of a pickup truck and went in the jungle trails to the volcano. Was nice passing through lots of pineapple fields along the way and checking out the scenery - Also spotted a few wild horses in the pastures surrounding the volcano. It was nice to see fairly new rock formations from solidified lava and the smoke coming out of the earth's core. Too bad we did not get to see any lava as such, but was a nice trek and interesting scenery.

Note : I did trip trip last year and just procastinated and very late in posting.

The Fair was in Town, Antigua, Guatemala

I reached Antigua on a Sunday and the fair was in town !! I love fairs.. the rides, the junk food, the people, the energy.. of course I could not miss it while I was there. I was glad I came on the right day for it. I had an awesome time at the fair and the rides were awesome !! though.. sub-security standards as compared to the US... but that's what made the rides extremely thrilling and exciting !! The food too was awesome.. though as fair food anywhere else in the world.. very greasy and unhealthy and all.. but once in a while, it's all good :)

Antigua, Guatemala

After a tiring journey by chicken bus and changing some 6 buses or so, I finally reached Antigua Guatemala. While I was travelling in the chicken buses, I met a couple of travels - the guy from Australia and the girl Brazil. We did the last part of the trip together and when we reached Antigua, we went to look for hostels together. Stayed at the Black Cat hostel and it was 'the' party hostel of Antigua. Very loud, packed with foreigners and hardly any local. I stayed there for only one night before moving to one of the numerous other hostels in Antigua.

Antigua is a very nice town. It was the colonial Spanish capital of Central America. It is a World Heritage site, and among the most visited places in Guatemala. Lots and lots of tourists, language schools, salsa schools, hotels, hostels, foreign food mixed with a good variety of traditional culture, people and way of life. It seems to be a very big destination for north Americans to come and learn Spanish or Salsa. The city is nice and small with lots of colonial architecture, ruins, historic buildings, cobblestone streets etc.. 

Chicken Bus from San Salvador, El Salvador to Antigua, Guatemala

After Boca Del Toro, Panama, I bused back to San Jose where I had a flight to El Salvador. I stayed in El Salvador only one night on the night I reached and took a bus the next day to Guatemala.

I had decided to take the chicken buses that the local people take rather than direct tourist buses.. from San Salvador, El Salvador to Antigua, Guatemala. Chicken buses are just old recycled US School buses.. called chicken buses koz the locals carry their chickens in it as well. Each chicken bus is individually painted in bright colors and basically each is it's own individual piece of art by itself.. rather than the dull looking yellow school buses they used to be.

I travelled by 6 buses and 1 tuk tuk and reached Antigua after 8 hours.. for only about $7.. compared to if I took a direct tourist bus, it'd have costed me about $35 and maybe 6 hours.. But money was not the issue.. it was a great adventure travelling by the chicken buses and mingling with locals and eating the local food the numerous vendors come to sell you while on the bus.. The buses are kind of crammed and not much space for legs etc.. but still worth the trip.. as they say.. "When in Rome, do like the Romans.. and when in Guatemala, do like the Guatemalans.. " :)

• Bus 1 : from my hostel (Ximena's guesthouse) to Terminal de Occidente  - $0.25
• Bus 2 : San Salvador to Ahuachapan - $1.25 (2 hours)
• Bus 3 : From Ahuachapan to Las Chinama (Frontera) - $0.55 (1 hour)
• Tuk Tuk 1 : Tuk-Tuk from El Salvador Frontera to Guatemala Frontera - $0.25
• Bus 4 : From Valle Nuevo (Border) to guatemala City - 25 Quetzal (3 hours)
• Bus 5 : from Terminal to other terminal to go to Antigua - 2 Quetzal ($0.25)
• Bus 6 : from Guatemala City to Antigua 12 Quetzal ($1) (1 hour)

Bocas del Toro Island, Panama

I don't have too many pictures from Panama because my SD card got damaged (wet) and I lost a big part of the pictures, but fortunately had another card which I had a few more.

While in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, I talked to many travelers and many were heading to Panama to this island called Bocas Del Toros after leaving Costa Rica. It was only about some 5 hours or so away. I decided, as I was so close by, I might as well do the hop across the border and get to see another country. We took a shuttle to the Costa Rica border, did immigration, crossed a scary looking bridge onto the border to Panama.. did immigration there and then took another shuttle which took us to a High speed water taxi to bring us to the Bocas Del Toro island. It's a very small island, probably inhabited by some 200 or so local people and the rest are mostly backpackers.

As you can imagine, with an island that remote and low population, the pace of life was very slow. There was not much to do apart from doing nothing. So, I did nothing.. chilled out there for a few days - rented a bicycle and went around the island to see the beachesof the island and I came across the set for 'SURVIVORS'.. They had one survivor series shot on that island.

Bocas del Toro has excellent surf and a great surfing destination. While I don't surf, I did go in the ocean and these waves were the strongest waves I ever encountered.. almost twisted my arm... just by the sheer pulling and pushing power of these powerful waves.

Another day, I took a tour to go snorkelling and dolphin watching. It was pretty neat.. lots of dolphins followed our boat as we headed to a particular part where they reside. Then we did some snorkelling, before going to Red Frog Beach.. where as the name suggests, we have many red frogs !! Unfortunately, the camera I used on that particular boat tour, the card got damaged. It's supposed to be an underwater camera.. Olympus tough and I thought I'd used it for snorkeling, but sand or water somehow got in and damaged the card with all the pictures I took for that day.. but surprisingly the camera still works. 

San Jose, Costa Rica

San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica was main transit point to go between the different places in Costa Rica. I would be back to San Jose every few days and chill out a day before heading to my other destinations in Costa Rica. The city is pretty chaotic and big and not the most easy to access by public transportation. One of the worst parts of the city though - most streets don't have name signs.. So you never know where you are. Even to Taxi Drivers, you can't give an exact address.. it has to be something like 400 metres east of a certain known spot. Pretty challenging for non-local to navigate the city. I enjoyed myself though and managed to explore the not so touristy places of the city as well. Fortunately I am brown and look local.. in so many places, you could smell danger in the air. 

Food of Costa Rica

Usually, I finish a country's travelogue by the food of that country. I was conflicted whether I should have named this entry 'Food of Central America' rather than Food of Costa Rica, because give or take a few exceptions, most of the basic food in Central America was the same - beans and rice and plantains being the major thing at most meals. Food was hearthy, cheap and good in most of central america. I would probably not be posting pictures from the other countries as it'd be basically a replica of this one.

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

After spending a few days at the very americanized Tamarindo, I decided to head off to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. They have a few Caribbean cities, but after talking to other travelers, I decided that Puerto Viejo would be the best place to chill out there. I left Tamarindo very early - the local buses leave 5:30a.m to go to San Jose and I had 1 hour or so break before taking the next bus to go to Puerto Viejo.

I did not have time to book any hostel accommodation for that first night and I was hoping when I get off the bus, somebody will try to come and sell me some cheap hostel.. as sometimes it's hard when you get to a new city to walk around with a big backpack looking for accommodation. Indeed when I got off the bus, somebody came and was trying to pimp out the accommodations where he's get a commission at. I checked out two places and liked the second place he brought me. For $10 a night, I had my own private wooden cabin(with shared showers) and it was only 1 1/2 blocks from the beach and all the main bars/restaurants of Puerto Viejo. I can't remember the name of the place.

Anyways, I stayed in Puerto Viejo for 3 days. Not much to do in Puerto Viejo, but it has a nice Caribbean beach and very chill out and mellow town. I rented bicycles for a couple of day to go and bike around and just doing nothing in particular. I really enjoyed the chill out time and the not so-much americanized touristy feel that I had in the pacific coast.

Sunsets are so colorful and vivid as compared to the ones on the Pacific Coast which were gorgeous as well. The sunset pictures in this gallery are real colors.. not enhanced colors... It's really that gorgeous !!

Shells of Costa Rica

Walking on the beaches of Costa Rica, you find all kinds of beautiful shells washed out on the shores by the strong waves. I really enjoyed examining the tiny details that make each shell so unique. I took some close ups of some of them. These close ups came out pretty good considering that it's from a point and shoot camera rather than an SLR. These shells were from a combination of the beaches of Tamarindo and Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica.

Tamarindo Sunsets, Beaches etc.. Costa Rica

Sunsets on the Pacific Coast of about anywhere are always nice and spectacular and I particular loved the beautiful ones at Tamarindo Beach in Costa Rica

These pictures were taken more than 2 months ago, but I have been procastinating posting them up. Coming very soon are the remaining of the pics from my backpacking trip - Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador !