Leaving central america

Winter is coming, it’s time for me to leave behind Volcanoes, surfboard, snorkel and fins, and put my skis back on for another winter in Sunpeaks. I really had an awesome time making my way from Canada to central america.

For those who haven’t seen many articles about this trip, here is my favorite parts on this trip so you can check those if you don’t have time to read everything.
- Visiting San Francisco
- Doing canyoning in the most amazing canyon I have ever seen next to Monterrey
- Spending a night overlooking a volcano throwing lava all night next to Antigua Guatemala
- Learning to freedive on Utila island, Honduras and surprising myself on my capacity in apnea
- “climb a volcano, help kids” : doing a 2 days hike going up few volcanoes with a local non profit association that raise fund to help kids in local community in Léon, Nicaragua


Now that I’m back in Canada I will probably stop updating my blog, I might share some thought once in a while here, but won’t post much more stories.  I also felt globaly much less interest in my blog during this trip compared to all my travel I did before. It is quite a lot of work to keep this up to date, so I think on my next travel, I won’t post everything on this blog. I will think about another way to share my experience with the ones that are interested.


Thanks to everyone that followed my blog and that gave me feedback!

Thinking about the image Central america have in term of safty

When I was in Canada planning to hitchhike through the US some people told me not to do so because it was dangerous, then in the US, people told me not to go to mexico because it was more dangerous ; then, the same again when I went in Guatemala. then I have been in Salvador and Honduras, where almost everyone told me not to go there as it was extremely dangerous. but from my experience the huge majority of people in all those countries are some of the nicest people on earth, yes there is some small part that have more risk, but every country does, and in fact I felt much safer in mexico than in France for example.
Every single person that told me not to go to a country because it wasn’t safe, have never been to the country they talk about, they made up their mind from the images sent by the media that only share extreme story, not sure if that’s to get more view on their stories or to scare people away from going to those country.  I think everyone should stop listening to what the media says and go check things out by themselves and made up their own opinion on the subject.   Yes there is few part that is best to avoid in some country, but it is very easy to avoid, and once in the country you can find out where to go and where not to go,   in fact it’s much easier to know the place to avoid in country like Honduras than in Europe or the US. I have hitchhiked in most country i have been and never felt any danger while doing so.
If you keep the basic safety rules like (for example, not showing off watches jewelry or any expensive stuff) and get to know the culture and talk a little bit with local people to know where to go and where not to go,  it is pretty safe place to go.

Those countries are amazing to visit, they need tourism to help them develop more. When I say that, I only mean responsible tourists that think by themselves and travel in a more sustainable way. respectful tourist and Mass tourism in those country will just bring more money to huge multinational company, exploit local people and destruct the environment in these countries.

So as a conclusion, you should all go visit central america, but once there, use only local business, respect the local culture, don’t go swim with dolphin, don’t go see turtle nesting in tour groups. live like a local, and make sure you produce as little waste as possible (The treatment and recycling of garbage in these countries isn’t well developed). Even if in some part most local throw on the ground their empty plastic bottle and bags it is absolutely not ok to do the same, instead you should show the example and look for garbage bin, and when you see people doing so, if you feel comfortable enough you should explain them why they should stop doing that! there is also a huge amount of opportunities for volunteering and help some local communities.

Surfing in San Juan Del Sur

Continuing my way through Nicaragua, I stop on a small town on the pacific coast, San Juan del sur, it’s a nice surfing town on the side of a beautiful beach. and from there you can go along the coast, there is many small beaches that are always amazing for relaxing, surfing or both!
again I had a great time here, the place is touristy but really beautiful and very easy to go surfing to different spot everyday if you want to!

I spent a full day surfing on one of these awesome beaches. and the next day visiting the town and surrounding, and getting all my stuff ready to go back in Canada, as here will be my last stop in central america. winter is coming and it’s time for me to go back up north.

In Ometepe, a huge island in the middle of a lake!

Next Stop in Nicaragua, la isla de Ometepe, it is a big island formed by two volcanoes in the middle of a huge lake !! the island is really beautiful and people there are amazing.
during all the time I was there I stayed on a permaculture farm sleeping in a hammock and seeing all the design of the property to be energy efficient and be totally garbage free.

on the island you can climb both volcanoes but apparently it is forbidden to go without a guide and being advertised as very hard it scared away everyone and I couldn’t find enough people to be able to go there :(
instead I went to a very nice waterfall and went exploring the island hitchhiking around. I really loved the island, amazing people and amazing scenery.

In another colonial town, Granada!

After few days around Leon, I when to Granada, it is a pretty similar town, a bit more touristy and with building much more restored!

There is few things to do around, going to some island on lake Nicaragua, hiking up volcanoes of going on some beautiful lakes
and many other possibilities. I decided to just go to see la Laguna de Apoyo, it is a small lake inside a crater with very crystal clear water. to get there Instead of taking a taxi or a tour to get to a resort on the side of the lake, I decided to walk there directly from town, I went through some tiny villages along a very nice dirt road, and got through a small farm to get to the edge of the lake at a very remote spot, It was really beautiful spot, super quiet and relaxing.

First stop in Nicaragua, Leon!

After a very long day going from chicken bus to chicken bus making may way through Honduras, the border and Nicaragua I finally arrived in Leon, it’s a really nice town close to some nice volcano.
I spent a day visiting around town and checking what to do in the area, I really liked it and there is few ruins that remained from the revolution in 1979.

The next day I left for a bigger Hike, over 2 days going up few volcano!! On the first day, going up a small volcano to go down on a board that was really awesome!!

Then starting to hike another volcano, a bit bigger, and spending the night up there with awesome view over a big lake and few other volcano, and the next day going down and swimming in a small lake in a old crater on the way back. the hike was really awesome I really had a great time!

In the middle of Honduras, In Lago Yojoa

going back from the Caribbean coast of Honduras toward Nicaragua, I passed by Lago Yojoa, a lake where I stopped when I was on my way to Utila, but due to very bad weather I didn’t stay and couldn’t see anything there.
this time the weather was much better, and I get to have a pretty good time with some awesome views over the lake.

the place was really cool and people super nice, it gives me a much better idea about what’s Honduras is. and I really like it!

Holding my breath on a small island

In Honduras I had a pretty bad weather for the first few days, so I quickly reach the Caribbean coast. The weather was still pretty bad and forecaster to be like that for few more days. I decided to go to a small island to do some snorkeling until the weather get better to keep on going on my trip. I decided to go on Utila, it is a very small diving island on a huge barrier reef.

On my way across Honduras I met a freediving instructor. We just talk a little bit about freediving, I wasn’t thinking about doing anything like that but it was interesting. Few days later, when I arrived on the island planning to spend longer time there to wait for a better weather, I figured out it would be nice to try it out and see what it’s all about. so I took a beginner course over 2 days and actually really loved it.
The day I was planning to leave the island I went freediving one last time in the morning before going to the ferry and had such a good time going to 30m deep next to a big ship wreck, I felt a bit sad leaving the island. When I reach the ferry terminal ready to buy my ticket I turned around and decided to stay a bit more to keep freediving and take an advanced course to learn more cool technique and get more time to explore that really cool ship wreck.

So in total I stayed a bit more than a week on the island, doing a lot of freediving and snorkeling, and had a really awesome time, I also impressed myself on how long I can hold my breath and how deep I managed to go!!  I went down to 46m on one breath, hold my breath for 5min on static apnea at the surface, and went down exploring inside that big ship wreck 30m deep.
Apparently I was  really good, as usually it take much more time and practice to reach similar depth or static times.

This time on the island was perfect to relax totally before going for the last part of my trip and gave me some very good idea for the future!

Going across honduras

In Honduras I really wanted to see the caribbean coast, which is very famous for diving and snorkeling. for that I had to go all across the country. but I know all the coast and the islands will be quit touristy and probably won’t reflect honduras culture, I decided to make a stop in the middle of the country, next to a big lake to learn more about honduras.
so from San miguel in el salvador I spend the full day going from chicken bus to chicken bus to reach lake yojoa at night.  there is quite a lot of nice things to do there, but I got unlucky with the weather and got just a morning of correct weather, then it was raining non-stop. and it seems that i would keep like that for few days, so I decided to keep going, and maybe make another stop there on my way to Nicaragua if I pass there again.
During the morning with correct weather I got just enough time to visit a really nice water fall. I wanted to do a small hike to get a nice view over the lake, i'll try to do it if I pass by there again.

in Santa Ana and San Miguel

After seeing the beach I went back inland to the second largest town in El Salvador, Santa Ana!
even if it’s the 2nd biggest city, it’s not really big, i find it really enjoyable and interesting to see as they receive very little tourist.

next to the city there is a volcano again, the highest point in El Salvador, the volcano de Santa Ana(2381m),  I decided to get on top of it, unfortunately I got unlucky with the clouds and couldn’t see any of the supposedly really amazing view. but I could see inside the crater with was really cool, with a small lake with amazing color and that was boiling at one spot.

After Santa Ana I decided to keep going toward Honduras, and making a last stop in San Miguel, another city on the other side of the country, I found it a bit similar to Santa Ana, I really like it. again I didn’t really took any photo in here.

Going surfing in el Tunco, in el Salvador!!

After seeing lot of archeological site and jungle in chiapas and flores, then some huge volcanoes in Antigua and Atitlan, I thought it was a good idea to go a bit to the beach. for that I decided to go directly in El salvador and see what the beach look like over there!

i decided to go to the tiny surf town El tunco, there is just two street next to a beach with mostly rocks and some small part with very nice black sand. It is a very popular surfing destination with pretty huge waves,  so I decided to give it a go and spend a day surfing (until my board broke in half which cost me more than what I was planning on spending in all el salvador).
until this small incident I had a really great time, and really like the place. I didn’t really took any picture so here is the only one I took here ;)

Around lake atitlan, In san Pedro la laguna

After Antigua, I went around a really beautiful lake, Lake Atitlan, I went across the lake on a small boat to reach the tiny town of San Pedro, which is just next to a big volcano.  the town itself is really nice, with one side very touristy and one side very quiet and everything is half the price from the touristy side.

seeing the big volcano (volcan San pedro 3020m) I couldn't resist but climbing on top of it. at this time of the year, the weather is usually clear very early in the morning but get cloudy very fast. so I decided to get up super early to try to catch the sunrise from the top. I started walking from my hotel at 4AM, and arrived on top around 6:15AM, just a bit after the sunrise, to a really amazing view !!

Shortly after I arrived the clouds got away, for a pretty awesome view over the whole lake and the Volcan Atitlan. just enough time for me to take few pictures and some clouds started to appear in front of the volcano blocking the view again.

it was again a really amazing trip, and it felt a bit weird to be back in town at 10:30AM, having already climb a pretty huge mountain. and still having the whole day ahead of me.

in Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua was the capital of Guatemala, but a huge earthquake destroy the city in 1773 and they decided to build a new city to be the new capital, the actual Guatemala city.
there is still quite a lot of ruins from this earthquake that have been kept like that, mixed with some really nice street with very nice colonial buildings.

around the city there is few volcano, I get up two of them. Pacaya which is one of the most active volcano in Guatemala, I was a bit disappointed, we can’t really get close to it, and the view I got wasn’t really nice.

The other one I climb was volcan Acatenango (3980m)  a really big one, and just next to another very active volcano (volcan de fuego). I did it over two days, spending the night a bit under the summit, just in front of the volcan de fuego. and it was just legandary, the volcano was in eruption pretty strong all night long to give us an amazing show all night long!
to add a bit more to the amazing view there was also a huge thunderstorm during the evening.

the next morning we got up super early to got to the summit for the sunrise which was again amazing.

This was definitely one of the highlight of this trip !!

In the beautiful town of Flores in Guatemala!

I arrived here a bit randomly as it was the only destination i could go from the border, so I didn’t know what to expect, and when I arrived I found out what was special about it.

it is a tiny island in a middle of a big lake, with just a bridge to get in and out of the town.the town is really nice with tiny old streets, but I couldn’t take a picture that show correctly what it looks like so I stole the picture above from internet.

It is the base town to visit the most visited site in Guatemala, the ruins of Tikal. it was once the capital of the mayan civilization, there was no tree at the time, but now it is in the middle of a big rain forest all the buildings were covered by grass and tree and now they are restoring everything one stone at a time. The amount of work needed to restore everything would be incredible.
visiting the whole site was really great, and I got super lucky that there wasn’t many people, most of the time I was just by myself. there is a lot of building that are not restored at all or just partly restored which give a good idea of how the found the site.

There is also some pretty big pyramid that rise above the trees which gives an awesome view
aside from all the ruins, as it is in the middle of the jungle there is an incredible wild life, I have seen many animals and amazing birds.  I really love visiting Tikal, it got everything and it’s not crowded.

Passing the border to Guatemala… already ??

When I was in "la selva Lacandona" I was very close to Guatemala, and after thinking a lot about it, I decided to cross the border here and skip the Yucatan peninsula and Belize.  I’m in mexico since quite a long time already and have already seen many amazing things there, and I think the Yucatan peninsula will be much more touristy so I decided to skip that part to have more time in other country like Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. So here I am crossing the border here in direction of Flores in Guatemala!!

since I said I want to visit mexico, I had so many people telling me I should not, that it is very dangerous, but being there I didn’t have that feeling at all. in fact most of the time I felt much safer than in France or in the US for example!!.

The difference in the country between north and south is huge!!, all the north is very modern and feel really rich but the more south I went the more it change, and went I arrived in chiapas I felt like I was in a different country, the south is definitely very poor compared to the north. both are very interesting to visit and globally it give mexico more interest and more things to see!! it would be easy to spend a full year visiting the country and still haven't seen everything.  so I had to choose few part to visit in the 6 weeks I spent there and now it’s time to move on to other countries :)

Last stop In Chiapas, Palanque!!

the town of Palanque haven't anything special, it’s a bit like ocosingo with more tourist.
Palanque is pretty famous for a big archaeological site, some big ruins from a old maya city.
so I went to visit the site which was really good. the site is situated in the middle of a jungle, about 6km away from the town. it is possible to stay in a small cabin in the middle of the jungle just next to the ruins which was really awesome.

I went to visit the ruins one morning, there is a lot of small buildings, and we can see that there is still a lot that haven't been restored. it is still possible to climb on most of the buildings which is cool, but quickly the site get crowded of tour groups which is not cool.

after few hours visiting all the area. I went for a walk in the middle of the jungle, there is some pretty nice spots and some very small ruins, it was really nice walk.

the next day i decided to go further away from Palanque, in la selva lacandona. It’s a big jungle with a road going through it with many small village along the way, mostly inhabited by maya communities. I spent a day walking through the jungle again, on the way I saw some small ruins some that have been restored a little bit, and some that haven't been touch and are just a pile of rocks covered by trees and vegetation.  the walk was again very interesting and near the end there is a big waterfalls which is also really awesome !!

Next stop in Chiapas, Ocosingo

After three days visiting all around san cristobal, I decided to move on the the next town, Ocosingo.  it is absolutely not touristy, which is really interesting. the city itself don’t have anything special but it’s really relax place.
from there the main interesting spot is a huge maya ruins that is partly restored. I really loved it, first the site is really huge, there is just a big pyramid that is r
estored ( not totally) but you can see around that there is a very huge area that is yet to be discover as it is actually all covered by the jungle.
and one of the best thing is that I had the whole site just for me, i’m not sure if i was lucky or if it is always like that but during the 3h I spent there I have seen only 3 small groups of tourist!!  it is more presented as a cultural place than a touristy place so there is almost no-one coming to visit there and therefore it is still allowed to climb on everything and even go inside some small part!!

After visiting that really nice ruin, I wanted to got deap in the jungle around a lake that is accessible only after 6h and a dirt road, and then 2 more hours walking through the jungle. Unfortunately, the collectivos to got there run just once every few days and there wasn’t any when I wanted to go, So I decided to keep going toward Palanque.

half way there there is a famous waterfall so I made a stop in Agua azul, it was pretty nice and a good way to break down the trip toward Palanque.

Arriving in Chiapas, starting in San cristobal de las casas.

After a long bus ride over night, I arrived at 6AM In Tuxtla Gutierres the biggest city in Chiapas,
from there I found my way with the collectivos to get outside town at the entrance of el Canon del sumidero, it’s a huge canyon that you can visit by boat or following the ridge on top of the mountains to get to different Miradores, Unfortunately the access to the miradores is closed on Tuesday and of course it was Tuesday. So I just get on a boat to see the canyon from the bottom and it is pretty impressive. the only bad side is that the water is extremely polluted, regularly along the way, the current gather ll the garbage people throw away and it make few small plastic island, it’s really sad to see such a beautiful place being trashed like that.

after this visit I jumped again in some collectivos to reach the touristy town of san Cristobal de las casas. and realize that Chiapas is much cheaper than the other part I visited in mexico, First with the collectivos it is possible to get almost anywhere for very cheap, so no need to use the big comfortable bus that are very expensive. also the accommodation is much cheaper, My first nights in ensenada, the cheapest backpacker was 300 Pesos,  in here I paid 175 Pesos for 3 nights!!
The first thing I notice when I arrived was that it was as expected very touristy, there was travel agency everywhere proposing different tours to visit all the surroundings. putting apart the touristy aspect of the city, the town is really enjoyable, very nice architecture and very beautiful streets that reminded me a bit of Guanajuato.

in the surrounding I visited a really impressive cave, a huge waterfall and some beautiful lakes. there is a bit of everything in chiapas!

I also went to a small indigenous town, where it’s possible to visit a very special church, where people come to make some very special rituals, that include burning lots of candles while spending lot of time saying some incantation and make a chicken turn around the head od the whole family. it was really interesting to see.
but at the same time I feel I shouldn’t have visit that. As much as I don’t like religions I think these people deserve to do these things in peace, and seeing them doing these rituals always surrounded by many tourist must be very annoying for them.

In Veracruz !!

When I was in Mexico city, everyone told me I should go to Oaxaca after.  So I decided to go to Veracruz.  I wanted to get away from the main touristic path, and I didn’t heard anything about Veracruz (except in a famous french movie), so I decided to go there quickly to see by myself.
I stayed here only a very short time, so I just visited the main city.

it’s a big city with a very important port, next to the center you can see only big boat and big docks. a bit more south there is some really nice beach. and when it come at night, many people get together on different place in the center to dance la “Danzon” it looks like a quiet waltz, and Mexican music, it is very popular and typical from there.

Visiting Mexico city !!

So after few weeks visiting more northern part of mexico, I reach the Capital, mexico city, about in the middle of the country. it is very big city(one of the biggest in the world) , a lot of people everywhere but nothing crazy or overwhelming.

It was once a big Aztec city, but when the spanish arrived they destroy almost everything from the aztec to start rebuilding mexico city. now there is almost nothing left for the old aztec city, just few small ruins and archaeological sites.

In the city centre there is lots of nice building from different part of Mexican history, angles de la independencia, monumento de la revolution, one of the biggest cathedral in north america just next to the palacio national (the government building), a big castle build by the french during the short time they were in mexico.  there is really some building from every part of mexico’s post Hispanic history.

about 1h north of mexico there is the ruins of Teotihuacan, another Aztec city that haven't been totally destroyed by the Spanish, it is pretty impressive site, with two huge pyramid still standing there, templo de la luna   and el templo del sol.  it is really interesting site to visit and very easily accessible from mexico city.

a bit more south of the city the is some “floating garden”, it is possible to go through all this area by Trajinera, it’s a kind of big colorful wooden boat, that are moved around using a huge pole.  it is very interesting to visit, with different kind of “garden”or island along the way, and lot of vendedor sell food and souvenir, or some musician that you can pay to play few songs along the way.

I was in mexico city during the Dia de la independencia, the 16th of september. the day befor most mexican have party to celebrate the independence of the country, all in mexican color, and usually listen to “el grito” a small speech from the president.  And of the 16th there is a big military parade!!

I like the city, there is really lots of different neighborhood and always something to do.
I spend about a week visiting the city and around, then it was time to keep traveling toward south.

Visiting San Miguel de Allende

About 1.5h south of Guanajuato there is San Miguel de Allende, many people told me about this small town so I decided to stop there for one day on my way to mexico city.

It is a small colonial town where a lot of american moved to live here after world war two. it is indeed very charming city.  I found it a bit like a smaller version of Guanajuato. Guanajuato is much bigger, but much less touristic, and the street are much less organized which give it an extra charm.

both town definitely worth the visit, but If you have time to visit only one, Guanajuato have much more to offer.

In Guanajuato!!

Many people told me to go visit Guanajuato, it’s a small town maybe 5h north of mexico city, and when I arrived there i was extremely surprised by that town, it’s full of old building and street, and it is really beautiful.
One particularity of this town is that it have a full network of street underground, when I get in center of town in a small public bus I was already very surprised to go through these old tunnels, it feel like going through a big cave under a very old castle. it’s really amazing.

The bus stop in the middle of the tunnel and from there just of to take a small exit road, or some small staircase to get up the surface. and arriving in the surface is again amazing, all the street are very beautiful old street and the town is full of very nice building.

on the side of town there is some even smaller street that goes up the hills between house. i reached an awesome view point on top of one hill with an amazing view over the city.

the city is also well known for all the mines that are in the area from which they extract gold, platinum, silver and more different metals.

I stayed a bit less that two days walking around everywhere by day and by night and I really love this city, it is really unique and amazing !!

In Guadalaja%^* guadalar(#$% Cabron!!! In Guadalajara!!

The second largest city in Mexico is Guadalajara (I can't pronounce it right, therefore the title). I went there for a quick stop to see a bit what it look like, and didn’t find anything special, the historic center is very nice but haven't find anything that really grab my attention. maybe If i had stayed longer or went visiting around, but I decided to pass faster on here to have more time to visit other part of mexico and central america.