Ending the Travels

So in 7 hours my plane takes off, in 18 i´ll be back in England- by my count its been around 230 days since the plane from Heathrow went off in the other direction. I feel ready to return, but at the same time im aware of how much travelling has given me. Another traveller, a long time ago now, said that he felt whilst traveling out here you´re also travelling in other parts of the world through the other backpackers you meet. A few stereotypes have definitely been broken on this trip, and i´ve learnt many good lessons along the way. Solo travelling lends itself to introspection, you know that all the good and bad things that happen are pretty much down to you- you have to take responsibility for the things you do wrong, but also congratulate yourself on what you do well.
And if theres one thing i´ve learnt out here, its this- dont plan too much the course youre going to take. The future is an unpredictable place, we dont really know whats going to happen, be it tomorrow or a year from now. Therefore just follow what you feel you should do and what youre good at- opportunities will present themselves, often from areas that you hadnt even considered and you could never plan for.

Mexico City

Its been an interesting last couple of days in the Americas- i arrived in Mexico City at what could be a turning point in the history of this country, as the protests surrounding the recent elections continue. The Central square, a huge area 200 by 200m, is completely filled with tents inhabited by supporters of Obrador- he´s the candidate of the left who lost by half a precentage point. The protests s happening because he claims electoral fraud- international observers declared the election free and fair, but it definitely seems like there were some significant irregularities. For example, most of the people who actually set up the systems used to record votes were linked to the party of the right.
So, last night i was in the square when Obrador was speaking. It scared me slightly to be there- i found myself agreeing with much of what he says, but the mob atmosphere that pervaded the place was too strong. It seems to me that that isnt going to lead to anywhere good, when people are in a crowd emotions can be too easily swayed, they can be led to carry out actions that normally they would consider repugnant. Even if Obrador is all he appears to be it sets a bad precedent, the amount of anger that can be generated at occasions such as that is dangerous.

Mexico Way

Well ive finally left Central America- yesterday i crossed over the Mexico-Guatemala border. It was a strange moment, really felt like things had changed. Maybe a premonition of how ill feel when i step onto that plane heading back to the UK. This area has given me a lot, ive seen so many incredibly beautiful things, met so many special people. And now its coming to an end, and my thoughts turn back to home (odd to say that, recently ive found myself calling the hostels ive been staying at home).
But there are still a few days left, and they promise to be interesting ones. Tomorrow ill get a bus up to Mexico City, which at present is full of angry lefties demanding a full recount of the recent election- theyve taken over the Central area, set up a tent camp in the biggest city square in the world. Everyone ive talked to says its nonviolent, that its no problem to be a tourist there- so, off i go.
PS. Theres also protests going on in Oaxaca, another city in Mexico. Its a bunch of teachers demanding better pay, smaller class sizes and all that- the way theyre going about it is by scrawling graffiti everywhere and setting fire to cars at night. I like the idea of a maths teacher throwing a molotov cocktail- just imagine Mr. Iwi doing it...

The Last 2 weeks

Only a week or so left until my time in Central America comes to an end- i feel ready to come back now, though it did come as a bit of a shock to get an email about having to choose my courses at Cambridge. But, you may well be asking what ive been doing for the last 2 weeks. Well the answer is very little, i took a week in Granada, a colonial city in Nicaragua, then travelled for a whole 30 minutes to get to Laguna de Apoyo, where i then spent another week doing nothing. Well no, its not entirely true that i did nothing. I enhanced my appreciation of Flor de Caña, the best rum in the world, i swam in the 30 degree waters of the Crater Lake, i took an art lesson from a Nicaraguan artist in Granada, and in general i hung out with some cool people. Oh, i also found my second Dad as well- his names Tony and he has hair like me. Therefore... At present though im heading back north- tonight i find myself in San Salvador, i figure i have 4 straight days of travel to get to Mexico City. The Worlds a big place, im gonna be covering lots of miles. My flight goes back on the 7th of September, i should be back in Bristol by midday. Be around that night, i dont care that i probably wont have slept for 30 hours, im going out. And so will you all as well.

Little Corn

Well, that trip turned out to be slightly longer than planned. I´ve just come back from 8 days on Little Corn, a small island on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua- if i hadnt run out of money id still be there now. Its a beautiful, tiny island, no more than a kilometre long and ringed with white sand beaches- the interior full of coconut, mango and all other types of trees. The main road is a metre wide concrete track, but i spent most of my time walking barefoot along little dirt tracks through the jungle. I was staying in a Cabiña at Derrick´s place, an isolated spot on the far side of the island from the main village- this was one of the best hostels i´ve stayed in on this entire trip; the ground had been cleared and grass planted, nowhere was more than 50m from the sea and it had the best beach on the island to itself. I´ve spent a lot of hours lying in a hammock next to that beach in the past week, though at times i was forced to leave the grounds.

That wasnt so bad though, because generally when i left it was to go scuba diving. Little Corn also has some of the most interesting underwater life i´ve so far encountered- i did five dives on the island, 2 of them would be in my top 5 dives ever. On both there were some very cool swimthroughs, underwater tunnels or caves where the light creates interesting effects and lots of fish hideout. Better than this though were the creatures- on one dive i saw 7 different sharks, one of which was bigger than me by at least a foot. We also ran into eagle rays, beautiful crazy creatures which just glide along underwater, flapping their wings whilst their tail drags behind them.

I was pretty blissed out there, it was good to sit out at night and watch the sky- it was full moon whilst we were there so it was pretty light, but each night we´d build fires out of coconut husks in proper Ray Mears style. It was a good time, perhaps the closest i´ve come to paradise on this trip.

Back and Forth in Costa Rica

I seem to be yoyoing quite a bit at the moment- a few days back i thought by now i'd be in Nicaragua, possibly diving on the Corn Islands, maybe just chilling in a hostel somewhere or other. Instead i find myself right back in the South-East of Costa Rica, in a place called Puerto Viejo in exactly the same hostel i was in about 10 days ago.

How did i get to this point? Well, after the Boa Constrictor incident i was meaning to leave Monteverde, possibly the very next morning. But then that night i met Jo and Aliky (wrong spelling), two English girls who turned out to be good friends with Alex. So, we spent a few hours chilling and chatting, then after that made the best nachoes in the world. Ever.

Also around were two friends from Utila, Tim and Lil, and two Canadian friends of theirs called Matt and Kea. It was a good night- we discovered that you could buy a litre and a half of red wine for $8, and i taught them a drinking game called Bishop's Bum (i'll teach you all when i get back as well. Its a fun one). The next day i thought i ws definitely going to Nicaragua, but then it turned i had to get the same bus as Tim, Lil, Matt and Kea to San Jose. By the time it got to my junction i'd decided that i was going with them. Good bus ride, also had one of my favourite moments on the trip when i was sitting in my seat, having my hair puffed up whilst eating Corn nuts and drinking red wine out of a plastic bottle with a sports cap (note to people at home: i havent had my hair cut since i left England, its got some serious volume now).

After that ride another couple of nights in San Jose, after which i thought i would definitely be going to Nicaragua. Except then Tim and Lil (by this point everyone else had left) persuaded me to go down to Puerto Viejo and lie on the beach for a while. Which i did, and will be doing today. But tomorrow Nicaragua. For sure.

Volcan Arenal

Northern Costa Rica is beautiful, rolling hills and mountains covered in cloud forest, small lakes and volcanoes dotting the landscape. One of the major attractions in this area is Arenal, an active volcano which you can observe from the town of La Fortuna. Or from one of the hotsprings which you find in the surrounding area- a few friends and i went to a particularly ridiculous one, called Baldi hotsprings. It was completely crazy, a maze of pools and grottoes constructed out of pretend stone. For added randomness there was a fake Mayan pyramid (never mind that the Mayan's never made it anywhere near Costa Rica), and a wet bar which sold me the most expensive drink i've bought in my entire time in Central America. We spent a few hours there, were lucky enough to actually see the volcano, and when it got dark we could see lava going down its side. Really awesome, totally worth the money.

After that we moved on to Monteverde, an ecological reserve where you can zipline, go on walks on bridges through the canopy, all the nice touristy stuff. Also, i got to hold a baby Boa Constrictor, which seems cool to me at least. Still, i'll be leaving tomorrow i think, moving on up to Nicaragua and some slightly more difficult travelling. Its gonna be fun.

Some Costa Rican stole my bag, and my Camera, and all my photos, and my journals (of 6 months), and my mp3 player, and my....

I dont think i've ever had anything important stolen from me before. Maybe a pen at school, perhaps even a 5 pound note i left lying around... so arriving in La Fortuna a couple of days ago was a bit of a shock. During these travels i've put all the stuff that's really important to me in my small bag, always had that close to me- on the bus i put it over my head, letting one of the straps hanging down so i could check every so often to see if it was still there. But, when i was moving to get off i found that my bag had been replaced with an empty one. This annoys me- if someone took the trouble of bringing an empty bag on board they were clearly planning to do something like this, its not an opportunistic crime but rather something totally planned.

So, when i get back home i wont be able to show anyone the photos that i've taken over this trip, 6 months of my thoughts (in journal form) have disappeared, my logs of all my dives are gone- many of the things i would have used to remember my time abroad wont be coming back. So, its surprising that i'm not more pissed off than i am right now. Perhaps its that i got righteously drunk with some Belgium guys i met on the bus as soon as i discovered the bag was gone, or perhaps its that i've found these material things i've lost don't matter to me as much as i thought they did. I still have the emails of all the people i've met on this trip, with luck i'll be able to get photos of the various parts off them, and this blog is some semblance of a journal.

Which is not to say that i'm totally content. This happening has highlighted to me some things i need to work on about myself- perhaps i can summarise this by saying that i'm too happy to let things slide, too confident that things will just work out with minimal input from myself. There have been numerous times on this trip when i've left my bag in far less secure places than i did on that bus a couple of days ago, and each time that i just raised the possibility a little more that something like this would happen. Also the things in the bag- i could have backed up the photos, but i didnt because it didnt occur to me that something like this would happen. So, a lesson learnt there, and its probably good that i learnt it at this time.