Hola todos! Deseo muy Feliz Navidad!!!
It’s 26th Dec, so I guess it’s Black Xmas for most of you in the city with your nice credit cards out there ready to make a killing at the malls… and for the rest of you still travelling or chilling in your pyjamas in front of the tv eating leftovers or takeaways… buen provecho! and for those surfers out there catching the great waves of Monteñita or El Tunco´s Sunzo waves…. surfs up buddies 
Ok it’s been awhile since i last wrote so i won’t attempt to catch up on with long winded details of latin america but will attempt to summarize what has happened since i set off from San Cristobal…
Sept-Nov.
Went to Panajachel, a small town on Lago D Atitlan, a beautiful volcanic lake in Guatemala. Was there only for 1 night, coz wanted to learn spanish in San Pedro, a hippy town on the other side of the lake. I ended up taking an intensive 6hrs a day, course over 5 days with my v. good teacher Isaah. He is very experience and use to own a Spanish school. Had to close it because he was running a political radio station and got into some legal problems… and so the story goes. I stayed with a Mayan family for a week as well. It was a very simple home but clean, typical of Mayan families. There was a fridge which they kept their homemade tortillas and lots of salsa and fresh produce. Fresh produce often meant a couple of eggs and vegetables. They ate very little meat.. they don’t eat meat a lot, i think it’s part diet and part budgetary. There´s 3 floors to the house. On the first, there’s a brick oven where they bake all the bread and cakes to sell in Santiago. Mama Mayan brings it over to the neighbouring town by boat at 4am few days a week to sell them in the big market over there.
I got along very well with the family, they told me that they are my Mayan family… they have 2 young boys who are champion pool players at the nearby bar called Buddha bar. I played there with them a few times and got to know all the young punks of San Pedro hahaha! It was fun, but usually i couldn’t stay up too late, had too much homework and needed to revise my Spanish for the next day… but still it was tough not to go down to Buddha Bar and chill out there.
After San Pedro, Mark, Hanna and I left for Antigua, a beautiful colonial town about 45mins away from Guatemala City. It was nice but it wouldn´t stop raining. So we only stayed a night there. Nothing much to do when it rains eh?¿
Next, we were off to El Tunco in El Salvador, a lovely beach spot good for surfing. Didn’t dare to surf there as the waves were too high for beginners, think 6-8 feet! Mark took up surfing lessons 1 day, i think he managed to stand, but guys are usually good at taking up new sporty things, Hanna and I went to a nearby beach called Playa Mahahual(ring a bell?) and had fun swimming there. There were only locals there and they kept up to the Latin spirit by whistling and hooting, and we kept on to our female traveler stoicness by ignoring them completely. Then we saw some stall owners selling turtle eggs… which ignited Hanna and I to start a long lecture about why they should not sell or eat them… unless they don’t want their grandchildren not to see a turtle live ever in the near future!
So after El Tunco, we headed south to Nicaragua, it was a long journey, briefly passing Honduras- stayed the night in Managua but got up early next day to head out to Granada to take the ferry out to Isla Ometepe. Isla Ometepe has 2 beautiful volcanic mountains. Was lovely, there’s a really nice natural spring pool there called Ojos de Agua. Also Hanna and I rented bikes first day while Mark decided to climb the Volcan Concepcion.
After 5 days on Ometepe, I split with Hanna and Mark and made my way back to San Salvador. But before that, I hung around Granada for a day with my german friend Cony. We went to the Museo Monastarie, it was amazingly good for a small museum with lots of Mayan carvings and big tablets found around the islands on lago Nicaragua.
From San Salvador, i flew into Quito. Quito was nice, I stayed in the hostel Centro del Mundo(Centre of the World), nice hostel with free flow Cuba Libres on Mon, Weds and Fri… too bad i got in on a Thurs. Missed my flight to Galapagos and had to catch another 1 day later(was so bummed about it), but manage to spend the lost Galapagos day roaming around the old quarters of Quito. Was very nice, climbed all the way upto the highest point on the Basilica and saw lightning striking the east side of town near the airport. Read in the papers next day there was a massive flood at the airport… when i got to the airport on Friday, all was dry with not much remnants of the rain before.
Galapagos, what luck, manage to catch the boat which i had miss the day before, they docked near the airport and i jumped on. Galapagos is amazing! Lizards coming right upto your feet, funny looking tree cactus, different terrains on a single island (dry arid desert-like, rainforest-moistured air, rocky coastal lines with shy Galapagos iguanas, prairy grassland)! spent a good part of the first day on the boat visiting Seymour Norte and Bartolome. 2nd day I was sick thanks to the crazy guide who brought out tequila, and first time ever did i have the wickedest seasickness while we sailed from Santiago to San Cristobal! 3rd day was spent chilling on San Cristobal.
Met up with lots of travellers and we all hung out on Santa Cruz for almost a week. There we dived and saw our first Hammerheads(Karish Baticsh as my Israelian friends called it)!!! Was so very exciting, such gentle and shy creatures they were. Saw tons of other pelagic sealife but on everyone’s mind, a Tiburon Martillo was what we wanted to catch a glimpse of.
After Galapagos, i went to Montañita, a lovely surf town about 3 hrs north of Guayaquil on the coast of Ecuador. It’s famous for it’s good surf and equally for it’s full moon parties. Sue, Avi and I learnt surfing there for the first time. I also tried my first paragliding. We all had fun there in our own way. I hung out quite often at Local Point, it’s owned by my surf maestro, Adamar. The last weekend there, there was Ecuador’ s National Surf competition. At the time I left, Adamar and Mario was at the top and still in the running for the title so all good.
Left with Sue to Mancora after a good week and a half in Monteñita. Was not easy to leave as I did fall in love with the place! It was so tranquillo there even tho every night there was a fiesta. Mancora(Peru) was a lot more peligroso, people were more city like and less friendly. The beaches were ok, it is sunnier here and bigger than Monteñita, but still i miss the small town feel on Monteñita!
To keep things short, I left for Huacachina and tried sandboarding with Sue. It was muy bueno, super fun. After Huacachina, we met Fernando on the way to Cusco. I went off to join a Jungle Inca Trek for 4 days, while Sue and Fernando went ahead to do Macchu Picchu the day I arrived in Aguas Caliente. I was lucky to meet a great group for my trek, we kept giving each other support all the way especially on day 2, the toughest day. Later after Macchu Picchu, Sue left earlier, Fernando and I went onto Arequipa, another colonial town south of Peru. We went to do a 2 day trek in Coca Cañon. Wasn’t as impressive as we thought it would be but it was a cheap one and we had a little bit of a view now and then.
Fernando stayed on longer in Arequipa, but i left for Chile and spent a few days in Santiago and a day touring Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. Next country – Argentina, went to Mendoza and to their famous museo de vino (wine museum) to sample the fine Malbec. Then off to Buenas Aires… it was very nice in Buenas Aires, so beautiful were their architecture and the people so fashionable that i thought i was transported to some big city in Spain! Spent a good time in this fantastic hostel called Hostel Nomade, hung out with Nada and Laeticia around town. Tried a lot of ¨new stuff¨ there… stayed up almost 48hrs once with Laeticia as we decided then, it was a good idea to goto neighboring Uruguay for a day to explore Colonia, a beach town just across the border about 3hrs ferry ride from BA! Well let’s say we ended up having a great time in Colonia and skipped the rain in BA! Next day Laeticia and I weren´t so lucky with a museums, a theatre and a rose garden park, was closed for stock taking, renovation and passed visiting hours… in that order.
I went on after a week to Salta, a beautiful town surrounded with lovely grand neighbourhoods, waterfall and nature parks! After that off to Bolivia, spent a few hours at the border town in Bolivia waiting for my train with a lovely young german couple who have been doing an exchange programme in Salta. The train ride offered an amazing view of Bolivia´s arid but mountainous landscape. Arrived at Uyuni in the middle of the night, it was freezing!
Next day, joined a jeep tour of Salta de Uyuni, the greatest salt flat plains in the world. It was surreal, like a set out of some alien movie… i felt transported to some foreign planet with the white wash view that stretched out onto the horizon. You see small hills floating on the horizon or water floating on the line where the clouds touch the white plains! It’s mirage at it’s most creative. Later i met a bunch of spanish, italians, colombian travellers, who were all heading to La Paz. It was one of the bumpiest night bus rides i have taken yet. I went onto Lake Titicaca with the 2 Spanish girls. The small town was called Copacabana. It was nice but I think I was quite tired and cold, so just enjoyed my day trip on the boat to the nearby island on lake Titi… Back to La Paz for a day and stayed at a Microbrewery called Adventure Brewery, was nice, La Paz has a nice Coca Leave Musuem. Also a very nice modern art Museum too near the park.
Flew off to Bogota next day, stayed in Platypus where i met fun travellers, Tibo, James, Chris and darling Claude. We all had a great time enjoying the xmas decorations which were stretched from mountain to parks! Amazing lights! We 5 travelled to Popayan for a day and a night, then through the border to Ecuador with patience just enought to cover our 7 hours wait with the help of a bottle of rum! It was quite funny, after 7hrs in the cold, we were ushered into the waiting room with a few more meters to goto the imigration, the electricity went out! So what else but our lovely Claude and her duty free bottle of rum to the rescue to lift our spirits!
Arrived in Quito late into the night. With most restaurants and bar closed as it was very late on Saturday. It was nice to meet some locals though. Next they we all went for the ¨True and ¨¨False¨Mitad del Mundo tours… Centre of the World tours 
… was interesting to hear that what the French claimed to be the centre of the World was indeed not… according to James version from our 2nd contradictory local tour, the Ecuadorian government must have bribed the French with lots of alcohol to set it there instead of across a busy highway.
15th Dec to 26th Dec
Back in El Salv… it’s nice here, sunnier than2 months ago. Waves are better for me to learn. Brad took me out and said catch those big ones! Was not a good idea, bloody tough those ones, knocked off once by Fatima, then my board flew off with a big one dragging me behind and banged into another surfer. I paddled off to avoid anymore collisions, and tried to catch the bystander surfs, wasn´t very successful as they were too small and too near the rocks.
Later Brad came over and we both walked closer to the rock and i managed to catch a few waves so felt good in the end. Spent a few days on in Papaya´s lodge, then left with Daniella, Ben and Linda to Juayua to visit Rutas del las flores. It was very tranquil. We enjoyed the Gastronimical food fair over the weekend. Left on Sunday for Sochitoto, where we met up with Daniella’s cousin Nidzan. Had a lovely time there too with the host family so nice… the father drove us on his pickup to a nearby waterfall, there wasn´t any water but the architecture of the fall was unmistakably unique shaped like a beehive! Was so so pretty the town. At night we joined the son, little Jesus, for a candlelight procession. They had 2 angels, Mary, Joseph but no baby jesus. Was nice. Had more street food pupusas! Back in Playa El Tunco for xmas with papaya’s familiy, was so nice, they cooked a lovely meal for us all from the hostel, we had vino, chicken, turkey and salsa! Was amazing to see how El Salvadorians celebrated their Xmas, all very low key but so warm and nice! We had firework show on the beach and music.
Today, 26th Dec, Vanessa, Cynthia and Jeremy left early for Leon in Nicaragua… i think i will stay another day just to chill out here. Will leave tomorrow for Antigua and meet up with Daniella and Ben there ! Will keep you all who is still reading this posted. Feliz sonrier (happy smiles)
Love gin.
