IT'S ALL OVER

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At least I'll finally be able to have Indian food.

As in Indian Subcontinent food, not 'Amer-indian food - tortillas'.

It's a rather glum day in San Jose. Miserable, cloudy, drizzly, yeah, an anticlimax really.

But at least I probably had the best week travelling I've ever had around Guatemala - sure my arse got thoroughly remoulded by the long journeys but every other day was a spectacular, mind-blowing destination.

So yeah, just like my last trip, gonna do a little summary what was good, bad and ugly. Then am gonna brave the rain and do some people watching and try and see if I can bring myself to like San Jose.

I doubt it.

So, without further a do...

Times when I felt like I could have been murdered

• When a homeless beggar approached me in a cafe in Iquique, Chile
• A very over-excited girl in a La Paz nightclub... yeah I don't really know how to put this in words in a way that makes sense...
• Tour guide turn drug dealer in Tortuguero National Park Costa Rica
• San Salvador.

Best Meal

• Without doubt - divine chicken breast stuffed with ham and melting cheese in a Belgian restaurant in Antigua

Best Journey

• From La Paz to Arica through the snow, up the Andes and down across the Atacama Desert

Most unexpected pleasant surprise

• Going for lunch on the shores of Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador, after climbing the Santa Ana Volcano

Most unexpected unpleasant surprise

• Losing my Caxton FX card THIS MORNING, probably stolen in San Jose Airport...

Best bus station

• La Paz Bus Station. It's beautiful. For a bus station.

Best airport

• La Paz. La Paz Airport is my second home.

Best wildlife watching experience

• Difficult one...
• A jaguar licking my hand in Bolivia
• The pumas...
• But these weren't really 'wild'
• The best probably one of...
• Spider monkeys in Tikal
• The sound of Howler Monkeys in the Boca del Drago beach Panama
• Seeing sloths, Howlers and various lizards from the canals of Tortuguero

Best beach

• El Tunco sunset in El Salvador was phenomenal but...
• Definitely Cahuita's black sand beach

Meal I felt most likely to vomit after

• The streetfood in Mercado Lanza, La Paz...
• The Casa Fusion food in La Paz...
• The Pizzas in La Paz...
• Just any of the food in La Paz.... (bar the Pasta place - and the one good pizza in the whole of South America we found)

Most regrettable decision (that I don't actually regret...)

• That jungle rave in Bolivia...(then having to hail a bus down in the middle of the Amazon at 3 o'clock in the morning)

Time I most felt like losing it

• Getting my airport transfer last night in San Jose...
• When Viva Air Peru moved my flight 4 hours early, causing me to miss it and have to get 22 HOURS MORE OF BUS RIDES
• so yeah...just don't fly. Ever.

Times I thought I would feel like losing it BUT DIDN'T

• The Peruvian buses. If you're gonna do 45 hours of bus rides anywhere, do them in Peru

Most disappointing

• Chavin de Huantar in Peru. The Incas and Mayans made the best stuff. Anyone else, don't bother unless you're an archeologist
• Tortuguero turtle watching - saw a turtle but just so many tourists
• Dinosaur footprints in Sucre were weirdly underwhelming

Place to return to first

• Honduras - so much jungle and trekking left to see/do + cheapest place on Earth to get a diving certificate

Place I'd recommend the most

• Guatemala - small country packed with world wonders. Actually incredible, worth the hype 100%

Where I'd want to live?

• Weirdly - La Paz. I like Sopocachi that much

Where I'd never live in 12 trillion years!!!

• San Salvador... need I say anymore???

Best country

• Bolivia - cheapest, journalism internship was fantastic

Most expensive place

• Costa Rica. This place is ridiculously expensive. Same if not more than Oxford prices

Where I should have spent more time

• Guatemala - should have skipped Copan, Honduras and done a trek in Guatemala

Where I wish I'd avoided and where I should have gone instead

Copan - nice but not worth it if going to Tikal (should have done the trek from Quetzaltenango to Lake Atitlan)

• Tortuguero - should have gone maybe to Volcan Arenal or the Monteverde cloudforest
• Sucre perhaps - and should have gone to Tarija or Samaipata instead

Friendliest locals

• Guatemala - good level of English (i.e. enough so that when you need to communicate you can, but also easy to have a Spanish conversation, unlike in Costa Rica where they presume all white people can't speak Spanish...)
• Bolivians are just more reserved - friendly when given a chance

Most homely

• Bolivia - I mean obviously, I have a 'home' there

Most alien place

• Bolivia at first. Honestly my initial reaction when first rolling into La Paz on the bus from Peru was s**t what have I done!

Best and Worst Hostel

• Best for sure was Chi Bocol, in the jungles near Lanquin in Central Guatemala. A very memorable place, just literally in the middle of absolute nowhere
• Worst difficult to say. Berakah in Copan was where my ankles got destroyed by mosquitoes, many hostels were noisy but none were bad

Worst Travellers

• ISRAELIS - so fricking rude
• Brits and Aussies are a bit embarassing to

Top 4

1. Inti Wara Yassi - covering the wildlife refuge for Bolivian Express was utterly incredible
2. Tikal - just an absolutely utterly incredible place
3. The Mine tour in Potosi - harrowing, but fascinating
4. Laguna 69 trek - utterly beautiful

Vamos!