Greg and Mandy's Travels

Snuck out of our room in the dark about 5:30 so we didn’t disturb anybody else, which was all a bit pointless because there was nobody else in the hostel apart from us anyway. Too early for breakfast, but we grabbed some orange juice on the way out.

Our driver was actually waiting for us, so we were on the road far earlier than our expected departure time, and at that time of the morning with no traffic we had a very easy run to the airport, so we ended up there with hours to spare.

Printed out our boarding passes and bag tags at the machine, then wandered down to the food court to grab some coffee for breakfast, and spend our last cordobas.…

William Walker was an interesting guy.

He was an American mercenary who, in the era of the expansion of the United States, driven by the doctrine of ‘manifest destiny’, organised unauthorised military expeditions into Mexico and Central America with the intention of establishing private colonies. Such an enterprise was known at the time as ‘filibustering’.

Walker originally went to Nicaragua in 1855 as leader of a mercenary army employed by the Nicaraguan Democratic Party (based in Leon) in its civil war against the Legitimists (based in Granada), and then attempted to split the country by playing one city off against the other. …

Most things seemed to go right today, well, at least until lunchtime.

The small shuttle bus arrived on time at the church on the corner to take us to Granada. Being only four of us on board, there were no subsequent pickups and the luggage stayed inside with us, so we actually arrived at our Airbnb in Granada ahead of time and were warmly welcomed by Juan, who has been operating the Airbnb since 2019, which I suppose hasn’t been the easiest of times. He either inherited or took over the B&B from his mother, I’m not actually sure which, but it’s a lovely oasis of a place only a street or two away from the centre of the town.…

“Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”,  President FD Roosevelt supposedly said of the brutal dictator in 1939, and that sums up pretty much the history of Nicaragua in one sentence.

Anastasio Somoza García ruled Nicaragua as a brutal family dictatorship from 1937 till his assassination in September 1956, and was supported and funded by successive US presidents. Prior to that, the US actually occupied Nicaragua from 1912 – 1933.

Years later, Ronald Reagan signed a top secret directive to allocate $19 million to the CIA to conduct covert actions against the Nicaraguan government who were no longer deemed friendly to the U.S.…

You know how bad days are. They just sneak up on you. Just when everything seems to be going well, everything falls apart. Well, that’s probably a bit overdramatic, but it wasn’t a great day. We left nice and early to make sure we were standing outside the hotel at the appointed time for the shuttle bus pick up. Took us about 20 minutes to walk out of the El Tunco township, and along the highway with no footpath to the nominated motel, and then we stood and stood and stood. Found out the next morning that they sent us an e-mail half an hour after they asked us to be at the stop saying that they had moved the pick up point.…

El Salvador continues to be full of surprises. It’s on the Pacific Ocean, and the capital is a little inland. However, on the coast is a town called El Tunco, and here they host a round of the world surfing championships. It’s a surfing and backpacking Mecca. Young surfers flock from all over the world to surf here, although it’s a black sand beach and very rocky, which means it’s not ideal for swimming. If you’re not really a surfer there isn’t that much to do once you’ve explored the village, but if you are, it’s the place you want to be to surf during the day and party at night.…

Way back in Spanish times, before El Salvador became an independent country, Suchitoto was the administrative centre of this region. It’s often referred to as the first capital of El Salvador, but really El Salvador didn’t have a proper capital until it succeeded from Spain and later again withdrew from the confederacies with their close neighbours. By that stage most people had migrated from Suchitoto to the place which is now called San Salvador, because of its proximity to the sea, availability of flat land, and the transit of the Pan-American Highway through the area.

It was meant to be a quaint town, though its population had more than halved during the civil war, so we organised a private day tour to Suchitoto today.…

The official description of El Salvador says that, in the last century, it has endured chronic political and economic instability, characterised by coups, revolts, and a succession of authoritarian rulers. That should just about tell you everything. Certainly back in the 80s, El Salvador was a by-word for basket case. But luckily it is no more, so what is the potted history of El Salvador?

Well, like every other country in this area, it was part of the Mayan civilisation for thousands of years until the Spanish conquerors arrived at the beginning of the 16th century. Like other countries in the area it got its independence from Spain in 1821, and for a few years there were a succession of attempts to form federations with the neighbouring countries, all of which ultimately failed.…

Our last morning in Antigua, so we took the opportunity to have a leisurely breakfast on the rooftop overlooking the city, whilst talking to a young couple from Perth.

Packed up, then went for a walk around the city to get some supplies. The cathedral was actually open now that all the parades and processions had finished, so we popped in as we walked past. Being decked out for Lent, it looked lovely, and had a great example of the Lent ‘carpets’ which are made out of flowers, plants and seeds, and in this case some fruit too.

Picked up right on time by our driver and shuttled back into Guatemala City.…

Spain, being a very devout Catholic country, took lots of things with them when they departed Guatemala and Central America such as gold, silver and other religious artefacts, but they did leave one thing behind – the Catholic religion. We are in the season of Lent, which is the season that leads up to Easter, and the whole town seems to be decked out in purple. There are purple flags, purple bunting, people wearing purple, and all the purple clothes are on the shop models. Today is Sunday and it’s the third Sunday of Lent, which means it’s the day of all the processions.…