Antigua is described by many as THE place to experience Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Central America.  So we were happy to discover we could make it there in time for the festivities.

The history of Semana Santa dates back to 16th century Spain, when the Catholic Church decided to educate the masses about the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

In Antigua, things get started on Palm Sunday with the first processions.  In preparation, residents and business owners cover the streets of the city with alfombras (carpets).  The alfombras are usually made of a base of sand or sawdust (used to level out the carpet on the uneven cobblestone street) and then are built in intricate patterns using stencils, coloured sawdust, flowers, pine needles, grass, plants, fruits, vegetables, and breads.

A sawdust alfombra

An alfombra created out of fruits, vegetables, and bread in La Merced church for the vigil

The processions themselves are all very similar, with the following parts:  First, men dressed as Roman soldiers lead the way, followed by hundreds of men in purple robes.

Roman soldiers

A sea of purple

After the Roman soldiers, there are flag bearers and incense carriers.

 

Incense bearer

Next, an anda (or float) is carried on the shoulders of between 60 and 100 men (again, in purple robes).  These andas weigh up to 7000 pounds, so there are lots of men, sorted by shoulder height, in the wings ready to switch off.  The first float features Jesus and the cross.

On Good Friday, the purple robes are changed to black mourning robes.

Behind the first anda is a marching band, playing funeral songs.  Then, more incense, and the women’s float – a smaller float featuring the Virgin de Delores who represents the Virgin Mary.  The women are dressed in white dresses/skirts and veils (again, changing to black mourning clothes on Good Friday).

Women’s float

Another band follows, and then the cleanup crew to sweep up what remains of the destroyed alfombras.

The carpets, which are often finished minutes before the procession are quickly destroyed

The processions happen on Palm Sunday, and then Wednesday to Sunday of Easter weekend.  They are slow and long… many start before sunrise and go throughout the day.  Others go throughout the night.

Procession going into the night

Nighttime carpet

Most processions seem to last about 12 hours or so, and they start at various churches throughout the city.

La Merced church

Thinking about checking it out?  There’s a few things you should know.  First, accommodation fills up during Semana Santa, so book yours well in advance.  Expect to pay approximately double the regular rates.  Second, the petty criminals also know that Antigua is the place to be, so they’re here too.  Don’t carry anything valuable and be extra vigilent about your stuff.  We had a wallet with about $15 in it pickpocketed during a Good Friday procession.  Another girl at our hostel had her bag slashed and wallet stolen the same day.  And another girl we met was robbed at gunpoint while walking a couple of blocks after dark.

Children’s procession

Roman soldier

No one is too young to participate!

 Note: If you liked these photos, there are oodles more in our Antigua gallery.  Check them out!

We went to El Salvador for the pupusas.  Unexpectedly, it became our favourite country we’ve visited in Central America.

Tree at entrance of San Andres ruins

I say that it was unexpected because we hadn’t heard many good things from other travelers.  The Yucatan, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Utila… all of these places had come highly recommended and we expected to fall in love with them before we even arrived.  But El Salvador was rarely visited and rarely recommended.  The most memorable advice came from a pair of nurses we met in Guatemala that had spent several months volunteering in El Salvador.  They told us it was so dangerous with all its gang violence that we shouldn’t even consider going there.  When we explained our pupusa desire, they suggested making a quick day trip across the border and getting out.

Luckily for us, we didn’t listen to them.  If we didn’t have flights and a cruise booked in April, we would – without a doubt – still be in El Salvador (ever since we booked the tickets, we’ve been wishing for more time at each place… we’re really missing the flexibility that came with having no future plans).

Mike, processing cashew nuts

Why do we love El Salvador?  The people are amazing.  They’re not just friendly, but downright go-out-of-their-way-to-make-sure-we’re-taken-care-of helpful.  On a few occasions, people would even stop whatever they were doing and start flagging down buses for us to make sure we got on the right one.  The landscape was stunning, the energy in the towns was invigorating, and, of course, the pupusas were to die for.  What more could you want?

Coconut soup in the making

El Salvador Summary:

Length of Stay:  19 days
Average Cost per Day for Two People:  $23.26
Cities Visited:  4
Distance Traveled:  748 km in 17 buses
Days Sick:  0 for Ashley, 2 for Mike
Number of Items Lost:  0
Biggest Tourist Traps:  none
Exchange Rate:  $1 CAD =$1 USD (the US Dollar is the official currency in El Salvador)

For more great stats, check out our statistics page!

Church in Juayua

Our Route

Honduras border [El Espino] – San Miguel – Juayua (Ataco) – Playa El Tunco – Organic farm near San Andres Ruinas – Honduras border [Anguiatu]

Highlights

• Connecting with the food we eat while WWOOFing on an organic farm… our eleven days here were a game changer for us!
• The laidback vibe and mountain scenery of Juayua and the brilliant murals in Ataco on the Ruta de las Flores
• Surfing lesson in Playa El Tunco
• The people… every we went, the people were beyond friendly

Sunset at Playa El Tunco

Lowlights

• Mike got a nasty cold (on the back of another one earlier in Nicaragua) for several days, keeping us out of the surf until the last minute in Playa El Tunco

Marañónes (cashew fruit)

Surprises/Lessons Learned

Note: Normally, these are separate categories, but for this country they seem to be one and the same.

• The ENTIRE country!  I don’t think we were expecting a lot from El Salvador but we were blown away by the culture, the land, and the people.  I can’t believe how un-touristed the whole area is!  It just goes to show you that the best places often don’t come with the hype.
• We may just be becoming vegetarians.  (I know, I know… we’re surprised too.)  After eleven days of eating delicious vegan food on the farm, feeling energetic as a result, and a few documentaries on factory farming and the health benefits of organic food, we’ll never look at lunch the same way again.
• Sustainable food production may just be in our future.  We’ve never been more at peace than when we were living and working at the permaculture organic farm.  The last 27 years of my life have trained me that life can’t be that easy… but maybe it can.

Mural in Ataco

El Salvador Journal – Where Did We Spend Our Time?

San Miguel – 1 night
This was a stopover the break up the buses between Somoto, Nicaragua and Juayua, El Salvador.  Here we experienced our first (through eighth) authentic Salvadorean pupusas.

Juayua – 3 nights
We spent our time wondering around town, breathing in the mountain air, and enjoying the vibe.  We took in the smaller-than-normal food fair between our regular meals of pupusas.  Before we left, we took a day trip to beautiful Ataco to see the brilliantly-coloured murals that cover their walls.

Playa El Tunco – 4 nights
Mike’s cold kept us from doing much for the first few days.  We did a lot of blogging to prepare for our eleven days without technology on the farm.  On our last day, we tried our hand at surfing with our first ever lesson.  Mike rocked it (as much as you can in your first hour with a surfboard) and I was  a spectacular failure… but we had a blast doing it!

Organic Farm near San Andreas Ruinas – 11 nights
We found this farm through HelpX and decided to give a volunteer experience a try.  What an experience!  We planted veggies and gardens, picked fruit, learned how to cook organic vegetarian cuisine, practiced yoga, and exercised our mind through books, discussions and documentaries on healthy living, spirituality, economics and politics.  We left different people.

Greetings from somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean!

After nine amazing months, it is finally time for us to bid adieu adios to Central America. It’s hard to leave a place we’ve grown to love so much; a place that has taught us more than we could have hoped about life, the world, and ourselves. But it’s time.

As you read this, Mike and I are lounging aboard a 5-star cruise ship en route to Barcelona, Spain. Actually we’re probably ice skating, rock climbing, surfing, or working out in the fitness center aboard the ship (we’ve got to offset all the food we’re eating somehow).

“Wait a minute!” you’re saying. “Did you say 5-star cruise ship? Am I reading the right blog? Aren’t Mike and Ashley self-proclaimed cheapskates? What are they doing on a 5-star cruise?”

No, we didn’t win the lottery. And we didn’t decide to throw our budget to the wind. Nor did we feel like we were in need of some luxury. To our utmost surprise, we discovered that a relocation cruise from Florida to Spain is actually cheaper than plane tickets to Spain, even when we factor in our flight from Guatemala City to Fort Lauderdale to hop on the boat (we’re talking $579 USD per person, taxes in, plus tips). And it includes 14 nights of food and accommodation! So it turns out the cheap thing to do is eat at delicious over-the-top restaurants, watch a broadway show, and go ice skating while we cross the Atlantic. Who would have thunk it?

Why Spain? We thought we were heading south through Central America and were planning to catch a boat from Panama to Colombia to continue through South America. But something in the back of our minds was itching for something a little different. We still want to work on our Spanish language skills, so Spain seemed like a good fit. We also thought it would be nice to walk the Camino de Santiago before Mike turns 30 (before he’s too old for it, as he says) , which happens on July 31. And the timing worked out perfectly, as the relocation ships only travel to Europe in April/May (they head back in November, in case you’re wondering).  South America is still calling to us, but it’ll have to wait for now.

We haven’t given up on all that we learned in El Salvador.  We plan to stick to a vegetarian diet on the cruise (if the free sushi doesn’t trip us up).  And we think the Camino will give us the perfect opportunity to reflect on everything we’ve been learning on this journey.  Post-camino, we are excited to try some more WWOOFing and work exchanges at organic farms in Europe.

So here we are. Cruising across the Atlantic. Internet is available, but at a whopping 65 cents a minute, we’re content to stay “unplugged” for the next 14 days. So we won’t be responding to your comments or emails for a little while. We will, however, finish posting the last of our Central American posts for your enjoyment.

See you on the other side.

The first time I tried a pupusa, I knew I had just discovered something special.  It was made by a Salvadorean lady in San Pedro La Laguna on Lago de Atitlan in Guatemala.  Before and since then, I’ve eaten some incredible street food… but nothing quite compares.  As I figured out on our travels through Central America, it’s rare to find them outside of El Salvador, unless you’re near the Salvadorean border.  I don’t think I’d be out of line in saying that one of the biggest reasons we wanted to go to El Salvador was for the pupusa.  You can judge me if you want, but please not until you’ve tried one.

The pupusa is El Salvador’s national street food.  It is basically a thick, hand-made corn tortilla, stuffed with beans, cheese, meat, vegetables, or some combination thereof, and fried on a flat griddle. It is typically served with curtido (a slightly fermented spicy coleslaw) and salsa roja (a watery tomato sauce).

The most common flavours seem to be queso (cheese, usually a soft cheese called quesillo) and revueltas (a combinations of queso, frijol (beans) and chicharron (cooked pork meat ground into a paste, not to be confused with fried pork rinds of the same name in other countries)).  Our personal fave is frijol and queso.  It’s nice having a favourite that’s not super popular, as we always get freshly made ones right off the grill.

Pupusas in Juayúa

There is a lot of variation in the flavour and quality of the dough, fillings, curtido, and sauce, but luckily there’s a pupuseria on just about every block to experiment with.  We’ve paid anywhere from 25 cents to 60 cents (at a pricier beach community) per pupusa, with 30-40 cents being the most typical prices.  It takes 2-3 pupusas to make a meal for one person.

Our time in El Salvador was limited, so we tried to make the most of it – we ate pupusas for 2-3 meals a day when we could, supplementing our nutrition with bags of mangos for snacks.

All in all, in our first 7 days in El Salvador, we consumed 57 pupusas (not each, but between the two of us… how gluttonous do you think we are?).  While they made for ridiculously cheap meals (think $1-2 for both of us), it wasn’t just the price that kept us coming back – it was the absolute satisfaction we felt from eating something that’s so delicious.  And if we were without a kitchen for a week, we would do it all over again.

I’ve heard rumours from other travellers that there exists a pupusa wall – a theoretical point where you just can’t bring yourself to eat another one – but I just don’t believe it.  My body would never betray me like that.

Viva La Pupusa!

Note: When Mike found out I wrote a post called “Ode to the Pupusa” and it wasn’t a poem, he was quite upset.  So here’s his version of “Ode to the Pupusa,” written and recorded immediately after a delicious pupusa lunch.

Lonely Planet describes the Ruta de Las Flores (Flower Route) as the “wildflower of Salvadorean tourism… a 36-km long winding trip through brightly colored colonial towns famed for lazy weekends of gastronomy and gallery-hopping, as well as more adventurous pursuits like mountain biking, horseback riding and hiking to hidden waterfalls scattered throughout the glorious Cordillera Apaneca.”  What doesn’t sound great about that?

What’s a Flower Route without some flowers?

Mike seemed pretty up in the air about the whole thing, but I insisted we needed to check it out.  I didn’t care so much about exploring the entire route, but wanted to experience at least a town or two.

We ended up making the beautiful town of Juayúa (who-ah-you-ah) our home base, since it’s famed for it’s weekend fería gastronómica or food fair.  The fair happens every weekend, so we arrived on a Friday so we wouldn’t miss out on anything.

Weekend market

Juayúa is definitely set up for tourism, but it was interesting to notice that we were some of the very few foreign tourists there.  It seems that most of the tourists that visit are Salvadorean, which leaves the authentic cultural experience intact.  Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful, and we met quite a few people that just wanted to chat.

Market stalls lining the street

We spent most of Saturday wandering the cobbled streets of Juayúa, enjoying the beauty around every corner.  The town is one of the “greenest” we’ve encountered in a long time, with trees and flowers bursting out from every yard and fence.  Every street offers a view of the volcanoes and mountains in the distance.

The Saturday food fair was up and running, though it was a little more low-key than the one described in the LP (no barbecued iguana, guinea pig, or frog skewers to be seen and the live music was a woman singing karaoke-style in the food tent), but it was still busy and full of options.  We decided on sharing a $5 USD steak platter, which included a large, juicy and tender steak with chimichurri sauce, a grilled potato, a “sandwich” of what we think was mashed yucca and cheese between two really thick corn tortillas, some spicy coleslaw and a grilled green onion.  We figured that the really interesting stuff would come out on Sunday.

Food fair

Yuca frita (fried yucca) from the food fair

Alas, our timing was off.  It turned out that Sunday was election day in El Salvador and, as a result, no food fair.  You might think this was enough to turn us off the town (we did, after all, come to the Ruta de las Flores specifically for this food fair), but we were so enamoured with the charming town and its surroundings that we couldn’t be disappointed.

Church at sunrise

Rather than hiking out to the nearby waterfall, we decided to spend Sunday morning exploring another of the route’s towns, Ataco.  Ataco is a brightly coloured town, with murals painted on several of the buildings.

Mural on one of the local businesses

Mike and I spent some time debating which town was prettier – Juayúa with it’s greenery or Ataco with its murals – but it was an impossible decision to make.  They are both lovely.

Without a doubt, I could easily spend a month or more taking in everything the Ruta de Las Flores area has to offer – waterfalls, nurseries, fresh fruits and veggies, coffee farms, furniture building, etc, etc.  Unfortunately, we had upcoming plans to volunteer with an organic farm so were limited to two and a half days in the area.  The charm of the area has left its mark on me, however, and I would definitely recommend a visit to the Flower Route to anyone travelling through El Salvador.

View from the streets of Apaneca, another town along the Ruta de las Flores

After saying goodbye to my mom in San Jose, we headed back up to Nicaragua with a plan. We were working our way back north to Guatemala to celebrate Semana Santa in Antigua. There were a couple of Nicaraguan destinations we missed out on with mom, so we hit them up on our way through second time.

This roundup covers both legs of our Nicaragua journey. Anything posted in bold is from our most recent trip through, but we thought you, the reader, would appreciate a total country summary as well.

Somoto Canyon

Nicaragua Summary:

Note – Statistics from this visit are in bold. Overall averages for the country are given in [square brackets].

Length of Stay: 6 days [22 days]
Average Cost per Day for Two People: $31.95 CAD [$31.84 CAD]
Cities Visited: 4 [10]
Distance Traveled: 430 km in 7 automobiles [1209 km in 19 automobiles and 2 boats]
Days Sick: 0 for Ashley, 0 for Mike [0 for Ashley, 1 for Mike]
Number of Items Lost: 0
Biggest Tourist Traps: none [touts at San Juan del Sur]
Exchange Rate: $1 CAD = 23 Cordobas

For more great stats, check out our statistics page!

Our Route:

1st trip (southbound, in blue): Honduras border – Managua – León – Las Peñitas – Granada – Isla de Ometepe (Moyogalpa, Merida) – San Juan del Sur – Costa Rica border

This trip(northbound, in red): Costa Rica border – Managua – Esteli – El Tisey Reserve – Somoto – Honduras border

Highlights:

• Seeing my mom!!!
• Full moon lava hike at León
• Fried yuca at the market in Granada
• International Poetry Festival in Granada
• Hiking through El Tisey Reserve (and snacking on the Swiss cheese made there!)
• Cliff jumping in Somoto Canyon
• The towns of Esteli and Somoto… they helped us find that love of Nicaragua we were looking for

Tisey Reserve

Lowlights:

• The food at Hacienda Merida on Isla de Ometepe (it was exceptionally tasty, and expensive to match. The alternatives were likewise cheap, and not so delicious)
• The “typico” Nicaraguan meal from a mall food court in Managua… should have known better
• We couldn’t stay in Granada long enough to experience more than a night of the International Poetry Festival
• Troubles with chicken buses… it seems some of the “schedules” are more of a suggestion that an expectation

Tisey Reserve

Surprises:

• Nicaragua is supposed to be the poorest country in Central America, but we didn’t really get that impression… there were a lot of cars everywhere we went.
• We had heard Nicaragua would be cheap. While the prices were definitely reasonable, it wasn’t as cheap as we were expecting.
• There is good cheese to be had in Central America… you just have to go to the middle of nowhere to find it!

Tisey Reserve

Lessons Learned:

• Travelling quickly through a country makes it difficult to fall in love with a place. We easily could have spent more time at nearly every town we were in, but were limited by our visas.
• If your gut tells you to go somewhere because it sounds like your cup of tea, trust it. It likely will be.
• Always reapply sunscreen after playing in the surf. Ouch!

Refrescos: Cacao(left) and Cocoa(right)… we just had to figure out the difference

Nicaragua Journal – Where Did We Spend Our Time?

For a detailed summary of each of the cities on our first trip through Nicaragua, check our original roundup.

Managua – 1 night
León – 2 nights
Las Peñitas – 2 nights
Granada – 3 nights
Moyogalpa, Isla de Ometepe – 1 night
Merida, Isla de Ometepe – 3 nights
San Juan del Sur – 4 nights

Managua – 1 night
Again, Managua was just a layover on our way to other destinations. We crashed here for a night and started out early the next morning.

Esteli – 1 night
We really enjoyed walking around the town of Esteli and people watching here. This was our home base for our trip to El Tisey Reserve.

El Tisey Reserve – 2 nights
We took a chicken bus out to the Eco-Posada at the reserve and rented a private cabin. It was really beautiful here and we hiked around much of the area. We probably could have spent more time, but alas we had to move on.

Somoto – 2 nights
We splurged on a tour to Somoto Canyon that included hiking, swimming in the canyon and cliff jumping. It was an incredible day spent in a stunning environment!

Tisey Reserve

It’s not every day that we pass up the opportunity to explore something for ourselves in favour of a guide, but the Cañón de Somoto seemed like a good place to splurge. And we’re glad we did.

Somoto Canyon

The Cañón de Somoto, located 15 km north of Somoto, Nicaragua, is a beautiful 3 km long gorge cut into solid rock by the Rio Coco. At places, the granite ridges are less than 10 m apart. It’s possible to hike along the upper ridge yourself, or even explore the lower reaches, but we found our guide invaluable here.

Our guide, guiding

We booked our tour through the guide recommended by our hotel (Maudiel, cel. 8699 8426), and were given three options: 3 hours, 4 hours, or 5 hours. We chose the longest tour, as it seemed to be the best value at $25 USD per person, versus $20 pp for the 4 hour one. The three hour tour didn’t even go to the bottom of the canyon, so we didn’t bother to learn its cost. The price included return transportation from our hotel and rental of water shoes.

Mike’s stylin’ water shoes… our guide cracked up every time he looked at them

At 8:00 am, our Spanish speaking guide, Maudiel, met us at our hotel and we took a taxi to the “house of the guides.” Once there, we shared a typical breakfast (an extra 40 cordobas, or $1.75 CAD) of gallo pinto, eggs, fried plantain, cheese, and tortillas. We met up with a couple from Spain and Argentina who would be joining us, then took another cab to the canyon entrance.

Somoto Canyon

From there, we walked along and through the riverbed of Rio Tapacali, which has cut itself a small canyon. There were several small caves to poke our heads into along the way.

We continued until it met with the Rio Coco (Central America’s largest river), stopping to check out a small waterfall along the way.

The waterfall

The scenary was spectacular and we were able to document it all through a combination of our waterproof camera case and the guide’s waterproof container. We worked our way down the rivers through a combination of walking along the edge, wading through ankle/knee/waist/chest deep water, and swimming. On many occasions, I would just stop and float and look up at the canyon walls around me.

Wading through the river

Just enjoying the scenery

The highlight of the tour, besides the magnificent canyon we walked and swam through, was the cliff jumping. We started with a small jump… a mere 3 metres or so.

This jump was no problem!

Later, we climbed up onto the canyon wall and wet our feet with a 10 metre jump into the river below. All four of us took the plunge, though not without a little apprehension. Then, Maudiel challenged us to try the 20 m jump that he had been talking about the whole way there. Mike was the first to agree, and after a little more rock climbing he stood shivering (he says it was because he was cold… but I don’t believe him) 20 metres above the water’s surface. With a yell and a loud splash, he earned the applause of everyone on the cliff. He told us he screamed, ran out of air, and still hadn’t hit the water – that’s how high it was.

Mike, jumping off the 20 m cliff.  Can you find him?

Not to be outdone (though it took a little coaxing), I climbed up the 20 m cliff too, and became just the second female in Maudiel’s five year history of guiding to complete the jump.

Oops… I just looked down

Like Mike, I let out an excited “wooo!”, paused, realized I was still only halfway down, and had time for a more frightened “ahhh!” before I hit the water. In an uncharacteristic manner, I even held the right body position and didn’t slap or crash into the water. I surfaced elated. After a quick damage assessment, I discovered I had only lost a contact… which I managed to salvage and return to its rightful place with the aid of a life jacket Mike tossed down.

Big jumps make big splashes!

After climbing back up, we all repeated the 10 m jump (no one else attempted the 20 m), before swimming to the next cliff. There, Mike did a 15 m jump while I enjoyed being a spectator (my left ear was full of water and in some pain from the last small jump, so I decided to sit – or should I say float – this one out).

The tour ended with a 400 m swim, a quick boat ride to the end of the canyon and a 2 km hike back to the guide’s house.

An easy ride back out of the canyon

Our walk back

We arrived there at about 1:45 pm, changed into dry clothes, and headed back into Somoto for some delicious rosquillas (baked corn biscuits).

The tour was something I would wholeheartedly recommend to any traveller wandering through Nicaragua. It was a chilly day though, so plan to have a nice hot chocolate when you’re done.

Just a little cold

Oh… and for all you female travellers out there… try the 20 m jump – you won’t regret it!