From Nicaragua via El Salvador to Guatemala

It isn't even that long ago that I blogged but now I find myself here in Antigua, Guatemala...

The trip out of Nicaragua did in fact requie an early start on Wednesday and so we left the backpackers at 5.15h in the morning. I had met a kiwi guy the night before who was gonna be on the same bus, so we went in a taxi together. He had also organized transport from San Salvador to La Libertad for the evening already, which was great, cause I didn't then have to organize that any more either. So after a quite relaxing bus ride and a shuttle to La Libertad, we arrived at the backpackers that they had organized the transport to. I wanted to go to another place though and so the guy from the backpackers drove me and some other guys into town again, so we could take a bus from there to El Tunco beach. When we arrived back at La Libertad, it turned out that my bag wasn't in the shuttle any more. I thought it might have gotten stolen in San Salvador, when I left it out of sight for a while. It turned out though, that one guy just offloaded it at the backpackers... So I decided I had enough of the forth and back and so stayed the night at the backpackers the kiwis stayed at. The backpackers (el roble) was real nice, but abit far away from the beach and no other backpackerswere there...

That's why on Thursday moring I headed out to a small beach called El Tunco, where there were supposedto be lots of backpackers. In fact there were quite a few hostels and tyhe place I stayed at was about 100m from the beach. Quite nice. I went for a suf that afternoon still, but the place I was at was not the perfect break. Still had a load of fun though. It turns out that the whole thing is very territorial. Locals get angry if you to to their spots and at the good spots there are about 30 people waiting for one wavewhole day... They go out there in the dark in the moring to be the first one to be there, when the light comes up. Apparently 10 minutes after it gets bright, the place then is packed already. Sorry, but that is way beyond me...

That's why I decided to have a very quite day on Friday. I read a lot, went to the town for a bit, brought some things to take home and hang around coffee shops a lot. They make amazing coffee. I bought a lot to take home... Early night, as the next day would be a bit of a long one.

Thelong day broke and I got ready and headed out of El Tunco by 8.00h the moring. Two different buses and a taxi brought me back to the TICA bus station in San Salvador. About San Salvador: So much like Cape Town in some ways. Apparently lots of crime. Lots of big cars (BMW, Merc, etc.) and very good parts of town and very bad parts of town. In the good part, I was walking along the street. A security guard with a gun every 50 meters (in front of every shop, etc), clean streets and very friendly people. The place I felt the safest in the whole of central america. Strange, isn't it? The place you get warned out because of its crime, seems the safest...
Anyays, we headed out with the bus at 2h with direction Guatemala City. There we arrived with about 2 hours delay, because we started late and because one girl had problems at the boarder. I ended up lending her 100US, because she had to pay a fine and didn't have themoney and they wouldn't let her go other wise. A bit like Africa really... I shared a taxi with another three guys I met on the bus and we got to Antigua at about 9h in the evening. It was great coming to NAtigua. A beautiful, that I know already and somehow the closure of a circle.

Today (Sunday) is all about getting into a more normal mode again. Went to the gym this morning, gonna go shopping now and have to start planning gifts to take home and really get myself sorted again.
I suppose this was my second last blog. The last onbe being the one from back home. It is always quite difficult trying to upload pics from the internet cafes here and I also dont wanna catch a virus on my flash, I will be addinbg lots of pics to the blog, when I get back. Until then.