We had decided to check out volcano Santa Ana. Mainly just because I’d seen so many pictures on the internet. I was keen to find out if the lake in its crater is really as turquoise the pictures promised. Continue Reading →
Tag: hiking
Laguna Chicabal, a sacred volcano lake, or: How I Learned to Stop Being Impatience and Love the Slowness
The evening before our trip to Laguna Chicabal, we watched a cartoon called Zootopia. Don’t judge! When spending all day going to Spanish classes and trying to cram as many irregular verbs in your head as possible, we all need time to cool down our slowly sautéed brains. For those less educated in animated films, Zootopia is about Judy Hobbs, a rabbit from Bunnyburrow who tries to make it as a police detective in the big city.
Assigned a case about a dozen missing predators, Hobbs and her unlikely partner Nick Wilde, a red fox, head to the Department of Mammal Vehicles to have a plate run. Alas, the department is staffed entirely by three-toed slots which are stamping and stapling forms at a speed that would make the latter Pope John Paul II cringe. It’s easily the best scene of the film, and I laughed my head off. But Anete, as ever more prescient, asked: “Would you be laughing if it happened to you? Continue Reading →
9 Things to do in and around Xela, Guatemala
Xela has it – the city surprises people and attracts them to stay longer. Its architecture is grand, and life is bustling and exciting.
Chances are that, when you first arrive here from other parts of Guatemala or Belize, all you want to do is walk around and suck it all in. And walking in the city is excellent, every turn leads to a new square or a building that you didn’t even think could exist anywhere in Guatemala.
There are quiet little parks with a couple of benches to enjoy the sunshine, a theatre and big city squares that remind you of a mini Times Square. At least, if you have been away from big cities for a while. In the evenings it’s all lit up, and during the daytime, magnificent blue volcanoes frame the town. Continue Reading →
Ruta de las Flores, El Salvador: an explosion of colours
If we ask you what you know about El Salvador, what do you answer?
If you’ve never visited the smallest country in Central America, you’ll plausibly talk about bloody turf wars between gangs. Tattooed street thugs who first slice a machete between their brother’s ribs and then go pray for forgiveness in the nearest church. Drug deals in chicken restaurants and drive-by shootings in the broad daylight.
But if you’ve actually been to El Salvador, you’ll talk differently. You probably can’t shut up about the cosy villages with cobblestones, cute little churches and fountains on squares, foodie festivals, delicious coffee and flowers, flowers, flowers. Continue Reading →
Alegría, El Salvador: The road to happiness leads through hell
I know that most travel blogs are just a glorification of all things travel. And I understand. Travel is magical, most of the time. Besides, no one really cares about the time you spent on a bus to get to that picture-perfect waterfall. Yes, it’s annoying when the bus is four hours late and when you’re squeezed between a box of chickens and a man with a body odour that’s considered a biological weapon by the United Nations. But just don’t go on about it. You’re not in the office sweating over some report that has to be filed by noon. You’re not hungry. You’re a privileged fucker on his way to a picture-perfect waterfall. So just accept it and shut up about it – the bus, the chickens, the body odour. If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Continue Reading →