Archive for February, 2014
Our Central America tour (16): Copan
February 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
It had rained in the night but Friday morning was another bright day. – perfect for our visit to the Maya location that is a World Heritage Site. Oddly the town is called Copan Ruinas while the site itself is simply known as Copan. We left the hotel at 8.30 am and returned at 1.10 […]
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Our Central America tour (15): Honduras
February 7th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
On his fourth and final voyage, Christopher Columbus landed in the country in 1502 and its name – literally “depths” in Spanish – is said to come from the explorer having written “Thank God we have come out of those depths”. Honduras became fully independent in 1840. Honduras is the original and archetypal banana republic […]
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Our Central America tour (14): San Salvador – and three countries in three hours
February 7th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Thursday started in San Salvador as we set off at the usual time of 8.30 am for what was billed as a city tour but was really just a visit to a cathedral and a model of the country. We were joined for the morning by a local guide called Alfredo whose grandparents lived two […]
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Our Central America tour (13): the Salvadoran civil war
February 6th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
We are now about half way through our grand tour of Central America. At Perquin, Wednesday morning’s breakfast was eggs as you like them and brown beans puréed. Beans and/or rice seem to come with every meal in this part of the world which is fine but puréed brown beans have an appearance more suited […]
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Our Central America tour (12): from Nicaragua to El Salvador
February 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Another day, another guide, another county. On Tuesday morning, we met our guide for the remainder of the trip, a loud, hyper and ever so cheerful Guatemalan called Sandra Molina who would regularly shout “OK, chicos!”. We were leaving Nicaragua for El Salvador and today was all about travelling between the two countries. As Brian […]
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Our Central America tour (11): El Salvador
February 4th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The country’s name means “the saviour” which is a reference to Jesus Christ. A Spanish colony from 1540, El Salvador became fully independent in 1840. It is known as the land of the volcanoes. In the 1980s, the country was ravaged by a civil war which left around 70,000 people dead and caused damage of […]
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Our Central America tour (10): Leon
February 4th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
On Monday morning at 8.30 am, we left Granada and three of the five who had joined us a few days earlier (so now we are 15). It was a short drive north west to the outskirts of the city of Managua. Historically Managua remained a village until 1852 when it was chosen as the […]
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Our Central America tour (9): Granada and environs
February 3rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
It was Sunday but for us it was no day of rest as we spent all day in and around the city of Grenada accompanied by local guide Gustavo as well as Eduardo. Granada – nicknamed the Great Sultan after its Moorish counterpart in Spain – is the oldest colonial city in Nicaragua, having been […]
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Our Central America tour (8): Lago de Nicaragua
February 2nd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Today (Saturday) we began and ended the programme on or around islands on Lago de Nicaragua. Overnight on Isla de Ometepe, we had shared our chalet with two tiny gekos and two large spiders which added some local flavour and then, in the morning, none of the chalets had hot water so it was an […]
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Our Central America tour (7): Isla de Ometepe
February 1st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Today (Friday), we were leaving Costa Rica and entering our second country of the tour Nicaragua, so essentially it was a travelling day. We left the hotel towards 8 am, took the Pan American Highway north, and reached the Costa Rican border an hour later. Crossing any Central American border can be problematic, even for […]
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