Greg and Mandy's Travels

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.…

Today was our longest day of the trip. A one day, out and back road trip into Honduras to visit the famed Mayan ruins at Copan. Not many visitors come from the eastern side where the capital is, as its a very long and arduous trip over the mountains, so most of the visitors arrive from Guatemala, which is what we did.

A little bit about the Mayans. The Maya civilisation was noted for its hieroglyphic script – the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas – as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical systems.…

What a day to be in town! It is both the third Friday in Lent, and the 480th birthday of Antigua, so the place is a’bustling.

So let’s set the scene. You will recall from my previous ramblings that way back in the 1500s Spain, Portugal, France and England were vying for supremacy as empires, and they were attempting to conquer as much of the New World as they could to gain the riches and the prestige that comes with a large empire. Spain in particular was bringing back lots of the riches gained from their conquests in South America, but pirates were ruining the party and plundering the ships as they came back to Spain.…

One of the must see attractions in the Antigua region of Guatemala is Lake Atitlan. Most visitors head to the village of Panajachel, which is on the shores of the lake and base their activities around there.

The cheapest way to get there is actually to book an Uber, so that’s what we did. Whilst we waited, we grabbed some pastries and coffee for breakfast, then piled into our car and headed off. Despite only being 50 km away, all the navigation apps said that it would take around two hours to arrive. Actually, it took well over 2 1/2 hours by the time we went through roadworks and dodged breakdowns up and over the mountains.…

Had to check out of our plush Guatemala City hotel, but first we just had time to go down into the city centre and do a walking tour of the historical precinct. Guatemala is frequently shaken by earthquakes, and there have been a couple of very large ones that have destroyed swathes of the country. Wayback in 1773 there was a very large earthquake in Antigua, which was then the capital, and the government took the decision to relocate the capital to a more stable location in the what has now become known as Guatemala City. Unfortunately, Guatemala City itself has endured two very large earthquakes in the 20th century, the biggest being in 1976 when 23,000 people died.…

Well, it was time to leave Belize. Nice place for a holiday, but wouldn’t want to live here. Terrific for couples and adults without children, but not very child friendly. Very bar and doof-doof focussed. Any café or restaurant with an eight page menu will have the first six pages devoted to drinks. Eating seems to be kind of an afterthought here.

Wandered down to the ferry with our luggage, checked it in, then walked along the sand back to our coffee shop for a final breakfast.

Exited Belize the way we came. Took the ferry back to Belize City, a taxi out to the airport, and waited around for a small plane to fly us to Guatemala.…

OK. Time to underwhelm you with a couple of facts before we leave Belize.

Belize has the only Jaguar reserve in the world.

Many Belizeans avoid swimming in the ocean or rivers on Good Friday; it is viewed as bad luck.

After Hurricane Hattie, the capital city was moved to Belmopan. With just over 12,000 inhabitants Belmopan is the smallest capital city in the World.

There are no McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks or KFC in the entire country of Belize. Bother.

Enough, I hear you cry. So what did we do on our final day? Well, we explored the final corner of this small island – the area around ‘The Split’.…