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N I C A R A G U A
J A C K A L -- 07/12/01 -- top of page

We're not here yet! GO AWAY!!!

NO really, we're not. Nothing to read here. Leave this page alone!

Oh, wait ... YES we are! Sorry, we arrived a few days ago, but web access isn't so good here in Nicaragua!

Nicaragua is cool! Came in via a small place called Esteli, not much there and not much to say, so I won't bother! Very nice friendly people though, and totally different look to the rest of Central America. Much more European looking, combined with a few more Garifunas - Carribean locals who live on the coast.

Funny, as you cross the border, you feel slightly safer than in Honduras, where every shop was guarded by a guy in uniform with a shotgun, or every bloke on the street seem to carry a 3ft long machete! Here it's so god-damned hot that no-one can be bothered to hassle anyone and life is simple and easy!

Anyway, from Esteli (where we met a nice couple called Ralf and Catherine) we headed North-ish and East-ish up to Matagalpa. This is roughly the last "safe" city before you hit bandit region and kidnapping in the wilds of the north, so we didn't go too much further. There is a lovely primary cloud forest area, almost untouched by man (except the paths!) called " La Selva Negra" or the Black forest, as it's a totally German owned hotel!

After a night in Matagalpa city/town and Graeme slowly recovering his bowel movements, we headed the next day to the forest for some easy walks. Oh dear!

But that's as much as I can say as I've been e-mailing too much! So long ... and hasta luego!

Jackal

Southern Bloke -- 07/12/01 -- Matagalpa -- Top | Léon

See this is what happened righ' ... we took this local bus ap the marn'ain road to La Selva Negra (or some bleedin foreign name), and walk to the 'otel, and we go to the reception, and being the wise Southern boyz that we are, we say, "oi!, desk woman, get yer booty-ass over 'ere, give us a map, and push off, innit? right?". And so we takes this map right, y'know, just like a piece of paper really, innit, and its got these simple drawins on and whatnot, like, 'eres where yer are now, and 'eres where this paff is, and 'eres where that paff goes, and we're like, what a cinch, this is designed for fogeys, yeah? so anyway, we calls over the waiter, and we says to 'im, we sez, "oi, waiter bloke, 'ow long right, ow long's'it tayk to walk this paff 'ere?" and he says some bladdy Dego-wap nonsense, couldn't make it art mesel', like, but one of the boys, speaks a bit a bit o' the lingo, dunnee?, and 'e's like, "oh, this geezer reckons 2 'arrs fer this paff, 2 'arrs fer this paff, then an 'arr fer this 'un", and we're like, oh, yeah, alright, dig? cos that's like a bit of a good walk, innit?, but one of the boys, well 'e's not so sure about this dego-waiter geezer, reckons 'e's pullin' a blinder on us, so we goes back to that booty behind the reception, and she's only wearin' a bleedin' Laahndan top, in't'she? Middle a' Nic-a-blinkin'-ragua, and she's wearin' this hooded top wiv "London" on it, and a picture of OUR flag. Cheek o' the woman. So we slapped 'er rarnd a bit like, to show 'er what's what, cos ya gotta keep the birds in line, right?

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so we asks this woman, "'ow long to walk these paffs then?" and she's like, "oh, one 'arr 'ere, 1 there, and firty minutes this last bit", and we're like, "you what?" cos its not what this waiter told us, yeah? So we gets out anyway, cos we can't be bothered with all these foreigners takin' the michael out of us, and we start walking on this pretty muddy paff, owners 'adn't even tidied it ap or nuffin', disgrace, yu'd never find this rarnd my gaff, and we're 10 minutes up the paff, watchin' all these batterflies and stuff, cos ya gotta look at nature evry nar'n'again, and then one of us pops off in'a the bushes to fertilise the place, narwhamean?

Then wha' is it? Its like anuvva 10 minutes la'er, and we see this sign for the next paff, and we're like, nah mate, this ain't righ', cos we only been walkin' 20 minutes, and that's wiv a toilet stop, so we're like, we'll carry on for an 'arr and see what 'appens. Well stone the bleedin crows if the paff dahn't shrink from, what is it in new? its like two'n'alf metres or summat, darn to abart 75cm, and we're thinkin', yeah, alright, paffs gettin' a bit better, more jungle and that ararnd, and we cross these streams, 'cept they don't call 'em streams over 'ere, ya av'ta call 'em Quebradas, funny word for a stream if'ye ask me, and then we go up a bit ov a 'ill, and its ferns and trees and vines and batterflies and birdcalls and green light and whatnot innit? and we're thinkin', Aye, nae too bad this, be'er than Basingstoke, yeah?, and then we 'av to climb this yooj 'ill, and all the soil's soft and slippy and there's plants, right, look real pretty, like ya might give yer bird some for 'er birfday or summat, ba' if ya touches them, they go an' bleedin sting ya, don' they! Cheek. I 'ad to be 'eld back by the boys, like, cos I wuz ready to 'av a go at one that stung me leg.

Where wuz I? Oh yeah, so we get to the top of this 'ill, and there's only another bleedin' 'ill in'there?, and we're like, alright then, jungle, throw it a' us, and we get to the top o' that one, and then we 'av to climb DARN a 'ill, only its got a stream on it, which makes it a bit difficult like, and then we walk for anuvva, I dunno, 30 minutes, and then the paff, it just stops. Swear on my muvva, paff just disappears, and we're thinkin, "alright, where's the cameras", yeah?, cos no-one fits us up unless it's like for the telly 'n that. But no, we've only gone and walked off the map, in't we? Well, we are a bit 'ard like, y'know, we're a bit wuuuuh at 'ome, tasty wiv our fists an' that, but maybe we ain't no match for a jungle, cos we ain't got no stats on 'ow fit they are an' that, so we're like, let's go back, and give those wops wot for, yeah? cos someone's gotta pay for this duff info, right?.

So we starts walkin' back, and wud you Adam 'n Eve it, it only starts rainin! An' we're tryin to climb back up streams an' darn 'ills, n' that, but then we thinks, lets surf it, yeah?, so we're goin' darn these 'ills, surfin on the mad as it crumbles under 'ar feet, and its a right laugh.

Well, eventually we got back to the 'otel, and we're so wet and cold that i' don' seem worf it to 'av a go at no one, so we just eat an' that. Then after we take anuvva of the walks, back to the road, which is like, 1 'arr n' a' 'arf, an' i' takes us, like, 40 minutes. Good walk, like, but these foreigners, ya can't trast 'em. Wouldn't trust 'em to keep a beer cold in Iceland, yeah?

An' that's our story ap the marn'ain.

A S T R O -- 15/12/01 -- Léon -- Top | Masaya

Oops, it's been a while, no? Oh, of course we've had adventures, but you don't want to hear about them, now, do you?

(Audience) Oh yes we do!

Oh no you don't!

(Audience) Oh yes we do!

Oh no you don't!

(Audience) Oh yes we ...

Alright, alright, stop with the pantomime nonsense. Sheesh, you'd think it was Christmas or something. Well, YOU LOT would, sitting in your houses with snow and ice and frost and wind and rain and dark nights and christmas shopping and christmas parties and all that going on. But some of us are wearing shorts, trying to avoid the blazing sun, and getting confused by Nicaraguans dressing in Santa costumes, selling friezes and displays of snowy reindeer and snowmen in their shops, wondering how on earth they could relate to such a concept, what it means to them, and how evil marketing managers could be so successful as to sell a tradition of snow and white fur-lined red burglar suits to a population used to eating rice and beans, picking Papaya from the trees, brushing flies off market produce all day long and wandering the streets as children with no shoes and dirty torn clothing with flat baskets full of chewing gum and cigarettes for the gringos.

If I may steal a line from the late great Bill Hicks - I just want to say, if you're into Marketing, kill yourself. No but seriously, if you are, do.

Rant over.

So ... what we been upto? After the confusion over which path to take through the rain forest in Matagalpa, we got back to our hostel for a shower, which needs to be described. Many towns in Nic. have intermittent water supplies (although surprisingly, most of the water is potable - drinkable - thanks to a massive project funded by most of the Scandinavian countries, Japan and Germany by the looks of it), so when the water is on, everyone fills up huge drums / barrels with water, and stores it. This means when you want a shower, rather than standing under the pipe that juts from the wall, and letting the cooold water shiver its way down your body, eliciting "ooh, h-ahhhh-ahhh, urrrrhhh"s from you while you try to cope with the sudden temperature change - especially when it goes down your back. You have to stand in the shower 'tray', take a small plastic bowl, dip it in the barrel of water, and then throw it over yourself. Surprisingly, after your first 'shower' of this sort, you find you actually prefer it to a normal shower. Bizarre.

So, showers all round, a night's sleep, then we left Mat. to go to Leon, the old capital of Nic., and the liberal centre of the country. For centuries, Leon has been in cultural war with the conservative centre of Nic., Granada, which is where we are at the moment.

After a bumpy bus ride to Leon, we stayed there a night, and found some most useful information. Whilst I was having an early night - the world dropping out of my posterior really took it out of me - the boys met a medical doctor, who said that I was suffering classic side effects from my malaria treatment, Chloroquine. A quick check with the fact sheet confirmed this - recurrent stomach problems, anxiety, sickness. Stopped taking the malaria pills straight away, and now, ooh, its nearly 2 weeks later now, am almost 100% better, and have missed my usual "gosh, stomach, its Wednesday night, hadn't we better wake up at 3am, and let rip into the toilet" appointment. Absolutely marvellous. Means I have to be a bit more careful with avoiding mosquitoes, but most of where we are going is low risk ... so fingers crossed.

Right, enough of my medical ailments. You all want to know what adventures we've had. Well, sorry, but I just ran out of money - another session, another time. I CAN tell you, though, that we've looked into the jaws of the earth ...

Astro.

A S T R O -- 19/12/01 -- Masaya -- Top | Granada

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORDY! It's the Big Yin's birthday today, another step closer to 30 ...

So, we left Léon the next morning, zoomed to Managua, the capital in a state of the art mini-van bus, that didn't break down halfway along the journey, in the middle of nowhere, at all, oh no.

In Managua, which we weren't too keen on staying in due to its reputation as a sleazy big city with muggings and the like, we went to buy our plane tickets to Peru, where we got a big ol' shock. Instead of paying the US$300 we were expecting, we got slapped round the chops with a whopping $594 dollar ticket. EACH! Looks like I can kiss goodbye to about a month of travelling at the end of my trip then ... sheeesh. With all these airfares coming down in price in Europe, you'd think it might have affected flights over here too ... huh.

Tickets in hand, pockets crawling into the lining of our trousers to avoid further stings, we took the bus to Granada, the old centre of conservativism in Nicaragua, and 400yr enemy of the liberal Léon. And what a very chilled out city it is, nestled on the lake. Checking into "Hospedaje Central", a gringo-run hostel at the lake end of the city, we proceeded to do ... well, not much of anything for a few days, as we were so overtaken with the fantastic food that our hostel served in its restaurant. It even had vegetarian food with flavour, that I wanted to eat. Lords a lawksy.

By Sunday, we had recharged our batteries, my body was bouncing back to fitness, so we decided that we would climb one of the local volcanoes, Masaya, and stare into the pits of the earth, to see if we could spot The Land That Time Forgot, or maybe any tunnels left by The Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. No such luck, chaps. We did have The Taxi Driver That Couldn't Understand The Simplest Spanish though, although I don't know if that's actually a film. How difficult is this (you Spanish speakers out there):

Queremos ir a la entrada del Parque Volcan, por favor.

Maybe not the best Spanish, but it says - we want to go to the entrance of the Volcano Park. Veeerrryyy simple. And we repeated it about, ooh, 15 times, as the The Taxi Driver That Couldn't Understand The Simplest Spanish tried to take us to everywhere in Nicaragua BUT the volcano park. Eventually he seemed to get the message, until we arrived at the Parque Central (maintown square) in Masaya, where he then feigned huge surprise that this wasn't where we wanted to be at all ..... AARRGGHHHHHHHHH.

Made it to the Volcano eventually, walked an hour up a tarmacadam road, and arrived at the steaming crater.

About which, more later ...

A S T R O -- 24/12/01 -- Masaya 2 -- Top | Isla de Ometepe

Well, Christmas Eve in Peru ... but wait ... I left you perched on the edge of the Masaya Volcano ...

Enter stage left four travellers; one tall Scotsman - Gonzo - with brown hair and big nose; one tall Englishman - Astro - with brown hair and pathetically attempted Fu Manchu moustache; one short fat Englishman - Jackal - with shaved head; and one skinny Aryan German girl, Chrissy.

The protaganists enter via a road, and walk to a small wall, stage right, beyond which smoke can be seen, lazily rising into the air. In the background, grassed land rises up.

Gonzo: Would ya' look a' tha'!

Jackal (high pitched voice, attempted Scottish accent): ayyyeee ... its nae bad.

Astro: Looks like a Doctor Who set. What's that smell?

Gonzo: Eugh, sulphur. Ye caen smaell it fae here.

Jackal: Well, you can if your nose is big enough!

Astro: Nothing wrong with big noses. Maybe you shouldn't be such a short arse.

The chat continues in this vein for some minutes. No great profound truths are discovered.

Eventually:

Jackal: Ooh, if you look through the smoke into the sky, it's all yellow.

Gonzo & Astro (together): Mmmm. So it does. Sulphur.

Jackal: Mmm.

Astro wanders off stage right. The curtain falls, and rises a moment later. The scenery has changed slightly. Behind the protaganists, we see a forced-perspective view of the inside of the volcano. Grey dust and ash litter a grey rock-strewn bowl. The walls of the bowl fall away in jagged bursts. Within the crater, a shelf of rock juts into the centre 5m all around, and a smaller crater, from which the smoke rises, can be seen further in.

Astro (shouting): You can get a better view from here!

The other 3 enter from stage left, and stand at the view point with Astro.

Gonzo: Ahh, cool. Yae can see whae tha smoak comes from.

Jackal: Can you see lava? ... oh, no ...

Astro: That's a shame. It'd be cool to see something hot and red.

Gonzo: Ey? Ey? Fnarr ... fwwuuuhh, eh?

Jackal and Astro look at Gonzo, slightly shaking their heads. Gonzo hangs his head in mock shame.

Astro: This is really ... prehistoric.

Gonzo: Its like Jurassic Park!

Jackal: You say that about everywhere - rainforest, mountains, volcanoes ...

The talk once more descends into fruitless search for ultimate truth and profundity. Our protaganists wander off stage left, Chrissy hangs around the volcano looking lost.

OK, how was that for a Christmas play? ... well, you try! After that we walked up the rim (easy boys) of the extinct craters, and looked down at the forest within, then rim-walked round the edge to the back of the volcano, and looked over an old Laguna, formed by a previous explosion of the volcano. How utterly marvellous - we have looked into the smoking pit of a live volcano, and walked the rim of an extinct one. Hurray for us !

Next day, a disaster in the world of literary genius. For the past 3 months I have been reading James Joyce's Ulysses - an absolutely stunning book, which I have to admit I didn't understand all of, but I was doing well - I was up to 636 pages out of 774. The homestretch in terms of reading. And guess what ... only such a well-timed mix-up could happen to me.

I finished breakfast on Monday morning in the small restaurant section of our hostel (its quite rare to have a hostel with a restaurant, so this is obviously very much appreciated when you find it). Then I put my book on the table, and went to my room to get money to pay with. There, I became distracted by packing my bag for the following day, and returned out front 15 minutes later. Book gone. Arse.

So, I asked the waitress if she had seen my book - "oh yes! I put it behind the bar to keep it safe for you, the big white book, no?" Well, that's excellent, what good service. So we go to the bar, and we talk to the bar man, and, donchaknow, this is all in my best Spanish, and he says, HE SAYS ... "oh, another traveller just came in and wanted to look at it, and I thought it was part of the book exchange" (note: lots of hostels have book exchanges, usually you have to swap 2 of your books for one Robert Ludlum thriller or somesuch), "so I gave it to her".

Arrrgghhhh.

So, can we get it back? -- "oh no, she just booked out."

ARGH.

And thus ended my reading of this literary genius. How utterly annoying. Hmph.

Well now, people, for your delight and delectation, step up to the diary podium Mr Chunki Munki, here's Jackal to take you through our visit to Isla de Ometepe, the largest freshwater island in the world, and home to, nay, made from, 2, yes that's TWO, volcanoes.

Ah thang yow.

J A C K A L -- 24/12/01 -- Isla de Ometepe -- Top | Ometepe 2

Hmmmm ... How do I follow that enthralling episode of our lives? Well first of all I'm gonna inform you all that playing fantasy football whilst not being able to see any live English games is mighty frustrating! It seems of my 2 teams, they're both utterly crap! My bestest team in the world is now coming a reasonable 25732nd in the league and my other team is currently propping up the table in 62078th place! FANTASTIC EH?! Just about as good as United's season. Maybe I'll manage to pick up a few more points near the end of the season ...

Anyway, back to Nicaragua. It seems that Granada actually had it in for us, as we were about to leave for Bluefields on the Caribbean coast with a nice German / Swiss couple, but the 2 Gs had problems getting back from Masaya, whilst myself and Chrissy nimbly jumped into some old ladies taxi with her.
Anyway, this meant a small change in plans for us all, Chrissy and Avram (the card sharp Israeli guy from Vegas), so we decided to take an extended holiday from it all on the tropical Island of Ometepe. Shame we couldn't find a working cash machine for another day and then had missed the boat to the island!

Sooo ... After an extra 2 nights in Granada, we finally head off to the island, catching the bus to Rivas (eventually ... Chrissy did her usual wandering about the shops so we missed the first bus), then onto San Jorge. That's when the fun started! Having already missed the "real" ferry, we decided to chance the banana boat that runs between the island and San Jorge. It's small, a little cramped, a bit too old to be on the sea, but of course VERY CHEAP! So we jump on.

I believe Gordon felt it to be one of the largest mistakes in his life! The waves on the lake (this is a very BIG lake mind you) were HUGE! As we turned out of the harbour we were immediately battered by the first of many and nearly overturned! There were screams (mostly from the sailors) and shouts from the passengers, but the boat ploughed on, almost turning over for the next 5 minutes, hit by every wave until we finally turned into them. And then of course it got worse!! The boat flew over most of the waves, into the air by a good 15 feet, before plummetting down into the troughs, smashing the hull into the water and my bum into the seat! Very painful I'll tell you! [Editor's Note: Unfortunately for the intrepid trio, Jackal isn't exaggerating about any of this]

The next 45 mins were either pure hell or fun, depending on whether you were laughing like an idiot (that was me!) or plain throwing up outta the front windows (that was Gordy) ... or somewhere between the 2 was Graeme ... hanging onto to his sanity and his breakfast remarkably well! Strangely as soon as we hid behind the island the waves ceased and the lake was a perfect calm and the next 45 mins passed calmly, with hardly anyone throwing up at all. Of course the one problem with sailing to islands is you have to sail back again to get home ...

B E G B I E -- 26/12/01 -- Isla de Ometepe -- Top | Last days of Nica

Aw reet there Lads an' Lassies.

Me mate Jackal has brought ye's aw up tae speed aboot gettin' tae Ometepe Island en me unfortunate boakin' incident. Jings and Crivvens uv never felt so sick in ma entire puff.

Anyways, the second day oan tha' island, at Finca Magdalena, wis spent goin' Jungle Jim stylee walkin'. Well who wants tae stick tae the pathways, ken?. Much more fun when ye's go oaf the beaten track is oor eehhh filos ... philos ... eeeehh ... way o thinkin, ken but like ...

So we joined Avram en Chrissi (Frae Osnabruck where ma' relatives live), and went doon dry riverbeds, hoppin' oer barbed wire fences an everythin' (jist like ma days in Saughton) endin up at the shores o' Lake Nicaragua, where we were greeted by a herd ... no ... a flock ... eeeeh no ... a load a pigs. Stayed there fer a short while and then walked back tae toon where we had oor cheapest meal o' the hoaliday so far. It wis barry man ..!

Chilled oot in the evening playin' oor new cerd gemme that we wis tought in Granada called "The Memory Game". Well that's it's posh title, cos it's real name can no be mentioned oan the site if ye's get ma drift ...

Went tae bed en had tae wrestle a Prayin' Mantis frae me bed. Wis a huge beastie ah tell ye. Carl had to wrestle with a scorpion in the shower too ... ahem!

Next day wis spent sittin' in hammocks readin' oor books. A ged rest day which we needed efter a few hectic days. Met some Ozzys in the evening, so it wis jist like bein' back in London again. Smashin'. We's aw agreed tae hire a driver and his truck tae take us roond tae the other side o'the Island so we's could aw go fer a hike up the volcano the nixt day. We's decided oan no' doin' the normal tourist route cos everyone that did it came doon covered in mud from the waist doon and it didnae seem like such a great hike.

Nixt day we's had an early stert an the lot a us went roond tae the other side o'the island en walked up through some bush en up a dry riverbed tae an absolutely tremendous 100m high waterfall where we's all showered an' cooled off in the fresh water. Absolutely fantastic. Filled up oor water bottles an headed back doon the volcano. An excellent hike. Took us aboot 6 hoors roond trip and we were aw suitably knackered when we go tae the bottom again. Saw the worlds biggest ants en also some muckle great big snake too. "Peligroso" said the guide as he scared it oaf with a stick. One of the more dangerous types. Jist aswell a wis no wearing any keks cos that wid have been way tae soft ken ...

Chilled oot in the evening wi' a couple o' beers and had an early night. Next day we left the Island. I wis looking forward tae another pukin' session, bit luckily the waters were really calm an still and the trip back wis dead scenic and got some great pictures o'Volcan Concepcion which will follow soon.

We headed back frae the port at San Jorge, via Rivas an' back tae Granada where we were goin' tae spend a couple of days chillin´oot before we headed on tae catch oor flight tae Peru ...

E L G O R D O -- 26/12/01 -- Granada (again) -- Top

We headed back to Granada after a few terrific healthy days on Ometepe Island, to launch into a few days of unhealthy living. Well the festive season had arrived, my birthday was around the corner, and Graeme hadn´t been ill in at least a week ... so why not.

We headed back north on the 1.5 hour bus journey, accompanied by a girl called Whitney (refrained from making any "jokes"), toward Granada.

We decided to check into the other hostel recommended to us, known as The Bearded Monkey. Noisier and more party orientated than Central Hospedaje, and it offered a very appealing Happy Hour ... SOLD!

There we met up again with Ozzy Duncan, Ozzy Tom (Max from Neighbours) and Watford boy Olly and the rest of the chaps and commenced imbibing beverages for the next "few" hours, playing atrocious pool, dancing like idiots (at La Fabrika), and generally talking rubbish etc. etc. Tremendous.

We were woken up the next morning at 9am by music blaring into our dormitory. We'd only had 4 hours sleep or so, but there was no way you could sleep through the loud music so we reluctantly got up and had some breakfast. Today was a slow day involving relaxing, reading, board games, films and travel planning etc. The previous day was a long day and we were being punished ...

The following day we got up and arranged to go to "The Monkey Hut" which was located on Laguna de Apoyo (a volcanic lake), about half an hour north of Granada. Nine of us jumped into the back of a truck with a stack of food and headed to this retreat and we were not disappointed. We turned up at a gorgeous wooden lakeside lodge, immediately stripped off and dived into the crystal clear warm waters of the lake (with inflatable tires and the likes). Marvellous. Nothing like splashing around like kids to pass the time ... The rest of the day was spent sunbathing, reading, listening to music, playing some basketball and generally relaxing.

Due to a power cut, we had no electricity to cook our food, but being inventive (and an ex-boy scout) we set about collecting wood and starting a fire so we could cook using the natural resources around us. With Ozzies in tow, we had a "barby" on the beach, and a splendid meal was cooked and scoffed to finish of a tremendous day.

We head off down below to South America next as we depart Central America after 2.5 months. We've had a grrreat time in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua and we would like to thank all the chaps that we met there ... big love and thanks to all of you ...

We taxied it to Managua International airport, with a driver that did not know how to drive in a straight line. We have found that every taxi driver in Nicaragua has there own little amusing habits and quirks ... mostly either unhelpful or life threatening. However we did get there in one piece.

We checked in our baggage at the Copa airlines desk and once again were gobsmacked by the additional tax we were required to pay. Two weeks before when we reluctantly handed over $600 to pay for our flight to Lima we asked the agent "Do we require to pay any more taxes?". Simple question I thought ... "No Sir" came the response from the very helpful agent. Sure enough though at check in we once again had to reluctantly hand over a further $25 to cover airport taxes. Some profanities were exchanged under our breaths. You could happily survive 2-3 days in Nicaragua on that sort of money, but what could we do?! ... "Where's my lawyer? ... it's an absoloite oitrage ..."

Anyway ... We departed from Managua on December 20th on time and flew to Panama City (over the Canal which was an impressive site from the air), and made our connecting flight down to Lima.

Copa airlines flew on time, served good food, provided good entertainment and actually made legroom available to those of us unfortunate to be taller than 4'6". I suppose that's what we should have expected after forking out so much money.

Peru is next, where Astro will commence proceedings in Lima. Includes mammoth amounts of walking, birthday celebrations, dodgy drug dealers, free Pisco sour, beers and Harry Potter ...

Adios Central America ...