January 2011

El Cubo waterfall outside of Suchitoto, El Salvador

Waterfall Jumping and Stupidity – Just Another Day in El Salvador

click photo to enlarge I spent the majority of this past week in the town of Suchitoto, near the Honduran border of El Salvador. Suchitoto is famous for its art exhibits, its stunning views of Lake Suchitlan, and the surrounding waterfalls not too far from town. Earlier this week I took a trip to two of these waterfalls with the son-in-law of my couchsurfing host (Host #3 in El Salvador) acting as my guide. The first fall we visited was

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Not a "Gringo" in sight.

El Salvador Gringo Counting

click photo to enlargeMy first 10 days in El Salvador I saw less than 10 gringos. And I’m using the term “gringo” pretty loosely. Technically you have to be an English speaker to be a gringo, but I widened it to anyone who looked even remotely white. Seriously, if there was any doubt at all, I just lumped the person into the gringo category, and still, less than 10 in 10 days. My first 4 days were spent exploring the

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Joya de Ceren

Unesco World Heritage Site #5 – Joya de Ceren

click photo to enlarge Yesterday I visited Joya De Ceren, my 5th Unesco World Heritage site since the start of the blog. It was, in a word, underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of history to be told here, and the remains are exquisitely intact, but compared to other ruins throughout Central America, there just isn’t a lot to see here. My couchsurfing host and I spent about 25 minutes at the site, and apparently if you

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Los Cobanos, El Salvador

Photo – A Little Piece of Paradise

click photo to enlargeI’ve been couchsurfing my entire stay so far in El Salvador, and the first thing I did with my second host was visit the remote beach of Los Cobanos. We were barely there for 18 hours but we had enough time to drink a few beers on the beach during the full moon and then wake up and take a morning swim before we had to leave. The area of this beach is so secluded that the

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Volcano Mural on the Side of a Store

Photos from Ruta de las Flores

Warning: If you don’t like bright colors you are not going to enjoy this post. Seriously. After the food festival this past Saturday I spent the next couple of days exploring the towns on Ruta de las Flores. Ruta de las Flores is 36 kilometer stretch of towns in northwest El Salvador that is known for it’s abundance of flowers during certain times of the year. This is supposed to be one of those times of year, but unfortunately the

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Food Booth at Juayua Food Festival

Juayua Food Festival – Chicken Buses, Food, and Rock N’ Roll

Before arriving in El Salvador I knew that each weekend there were a couple of towns on the Ruta de Las Flores (the part of the country I’m in right now) who had food festivals on the weekends and that people from all over the country attended them What I didn’t know, was that the city of Juayua was not only having their weekly food festival, but also their annual celebration of the Black Christ, and, that this was by

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Video: Live Salsa in Antigua

On one of my last nights in Guatemala I was able to catch some live Salsa at a bar in Antigua called La Esquina. This was actually the third time I had been to this bar, on this night (every Wednesday) to catch this band. I really love going to this place. Not only for the incredible music, but for the cool vibe, the numerous backpackers, and plenty of locals enjoying the music and dancing to their hearts content. I

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Volcan de Pacaya

Hiking Pacaya – The Journey at Last

Two days ago, for less than what I would pay to go to the movies in the U.S. and some supplies from Backcountry.com, my friend and I hiked an active volcano named Pacaya. It’s something many have done before me, and many more will do after me, but yesterday was my day to do it, and it was freaking awesome! If you’ve been following me for awhile then you might remember that last summer Pacaya erupted just before my trip

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Lavame (Wash Me)

Photo: Humor is Universal – Lavame

click photo to enlarge My friend and I spotted this car parked on the main street of Montericco, Guatemala. Lavame translates to “wash me” in English. Gotta love that right?

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Montericco Black Sand Beach

Photos From Montericco: The People and the Place

click photos to enlarge The past few days Daniel and I stayed in the small beachside town of Montericco here in Guatemala. Montericco has a volcanic sand beach and the town consists of one paved road, a few dirt roads, a boardwalk, and, you guessed it, the beach. This place is so small, it’s not even on Google Maps! It may not sound like much, but we found it to be our own little paradise. As I’m sure you can

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Volcan de Fuego Erupting

Photo: Volcan de Fuego Erupting!

click photo to enlarge Yesterday morning while leaving Antigua for the beachside town of Monetricco, Daniel and I were treated to an awesome sight. The active Volcan de Fuego (Volcano of Fire) was erupting and spewing smoke and ash into the sky. The driver of our shuttle stopped for everyone to get a good look and I jumped out to take this quick shot. The driver had pulled over behind some trees so I had to run down the road

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Delayed Flight

If Only Traveling Didn’t Require Traveling

The good part about being stuck in an airport when your flight is delayed is that you can catch up on the latest videos of people doing dumb stuff on YouTube. The bad part is that you are stuck in an airport. Right now the bad part is weighing in a bit heavier as I think we (my friend Daniel and I) have exhausted our interest in YouTube. But don’t worry, we’ve found some real gems during our 2 hour

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Copan Ruinas

UNESCO World Heritage Site #4 – Maya Site of Copan

click photo to enlarge Copan Ruinas is a Mayan archeological site in western Honduras. There is actually a small town about a mile from the site that goes by the same name. One of the first things I noticed when I visited was that the ruins are not quite as grand as the temples and monuments at Tikal, but the art and detail that has been preserved at Copan Ruinas is something worth seeing in itself. This photo is of

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Flag of Honduras

7 Interesting Facts About Honduras

The third installment in my “Interesting Facts…” series comes from the country of Honduras. While I didn’t get to spend a lot of time in Honduras this past summer, I definitely enjoyed myself during my stay and would love to go back one day. So, without any further ado, here are 7 interesting facts about the country of Honduras. 1. Honduras was formerly known as Spanish Honduras in order to differentiate itself from Belize, which was previously known (see Belize

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