Liz Cirelli: Sun, sea, sand, surf and...saying goodbyes

It's little wonder I had such a good feeling when I arrived in Sayulita. We had such an amazing time there we ended up staying for almost 3 weeks. Lucy, Rick and Isis were happily staying in their own apartment, and had very generously offered for me to stay with them, but knowing Rick and his tendencies I felt it a much better option to find my own place to stay, so I opted to check into a hostel that both Lucy and Rick very highly recommended. I checked myself in to the small, delightful Casa Amistad and was greeted by Connie, the wonderful lady who owns it. A seasoned traveller herself back in the day, Connie built Casa Amistad with the vision of making it as homely as possible, and she certainly achieved that. She even had surf boards that were free to use for her guests. Perfection. The open-air dorm where I had opted to stay, was absolutely gorgeous...it felt like a little princesses palace – all white and airy. There were only 2 other people staying in the 5-bed dorm: Olaf – a lovely long-distance runner from Denmark – and Tracey – a chatty, friendly lady from Canada. It didn't take long at all for me to start feeling completely at home.

One morning, over a leisurely breakfast at one of the delectable eateries in town, Lucy, Rick and I had met a fabulous couple – Brenda and Taisuke – and their gorgeous 5 year old son, Nayu. I felt an instant connection with Brenda, and after a wonderfully geeky music chat with Taisuke, I knew I had just made 2 new friends for life. We formed a little tribe - enjoying days on the beach together, surfing, tanning and basking in each other's company. Unlike San Blas, Sayulita is very tourist-oriented. There seemed to be a couple of spots that had good dancing potential, and as Friday night approached, I felt that good old familiar urge to let-loose on the dance floor. Since Rick was around - and had quite a lot of babysitting debt to pay - Brenda, Lucy and I excitedly colluded to plan a girl's night out. We made it out, but it appeared Friday was not the happening night in Sayulita town. The parties we went to were considerably lacking in both people and vibe so we decided to call it a night and revisit our partying plans on Saturday – which was, we were promised, the party night. By the time Saturday night rolled around, and after a deeply relaxing yoga class, both Lucy and Brenda were not wearing their party heads. My legs were still desperate for a dance, so I decided to head out solo. Upon hearing about my plans, lovely Olaf offered to come with me – so off we went, to the plaza, in search of the party. We enjoyed a couple of margaritas at the infamous tequila bar, then headed to Buddha Mar, where apparently, the party was at.

The familiar sound of the booming 4-4 kick drum oozed out of the club, and my legs went on auto-bounce. I made a spot for myself on the dance floor and joyfully started dancing. Olaf, not so much a party-goer, decided to stay close to the bar, and chatted to friends of his that he had found. He introduced me to one, Omar – an anthropologist who teaches Spanish, and 'click'...we were off, chatting away to one another with increasing interest. After he had caught up with his friends, Olaf decided to head home and I stayed out with the ever-alluring Omar. He told me he and his house mate are registered as hosts on a website called Couchsurfing.com, and casually offered for me to stay at his place if I wanted to save a bit of money on accommodation. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, couchsurfing.com is a genius website where people offer their houses as free places to stay for travellers who are visiting their country – and the said travellers can search the site for appropriate places to stay). My instincts told me to go for it, so the following day I said goodbye to my friends at Casa Amistad and readied myself to move in with Omar.

In the meantime, Rick had decided that once again he had had his fill of being a father and decided to flee Sayulita, to the desert, in search of himself, the meaning of life, his true purpose...etc etc etc. By now, Lucy knew the situation between them well enough to be able to enjoy their time together without any expectation of Rick being anything close to a full-time father, so although she felt nothing less than abject rage at once again being confronted with the delusional wasteland of his unfettered narcissism, she was overall relieved to reclaim her freedom once more. As things transpired, he had paid for a rather swish apartment upfront for a month, so Lucy and Isis were able to enjoy their freshly-returned space in relative luxury.

Omar and I shared an intense connection – and we had a lot of fun together (yes, I am allowing you to read between the lines here). He arranged for Lucy, Isis and I to enjoy a wonderful day out on his friend's catamaran sail boat. We ventured to some nearby islands and gazed in innocent child-like awe as hump-backed whales breached only meters from the boat. It was an utterly divine day out – I've always wanted to own a boat – that wonderful day truly instilled within me a fresh determination to have my own sail boat for me to enjoy with all of my loved ones. The rest of my days in Sayulita were truly joyous. Lucy, Isis and I took a road trip with Brenda and Nayu to a nearby beach where we experienced the awesomeness of stand-up paddling, which is tremendous fun – and a great work-out! Lazy afternoons were spent with Omar, I caught up with my friends from Casa Amistad...and of course made sure I excelled in lolling around on the beach with Lucy and Isis. As our time in this idyllic little town started drawing to an end, both Lucy and I started having some serious 'should I stay or should I go' moments. We toyed with the idea of cancelling our forward travel arrangements in favour of staying in Sayulita a week longer – even on the eve of our departure we were still undecided. After a lengthy discussion, Lucy and I decided to remain in the flow and resolved to take our flights south to Oaxaca state the next morning.

It was so hard to say goodbye to all the wonderful people we had been blessed with meeting in Sayulita: Brenda, Taisuke amazing little Nayu...and of course the delicious Omar. As the taxi sped along the highway Lucy and I lamented our departure. To console ourselves we set our sights on the next phase of our adventure: we had little over a week left of our epic journey – and there was still so much we wanted to see. We hot-footed it south, to the tropical shores of Mazunte and Zipolite – places that we had heard much about and were eager to see. We tried to check into a hostel in Mazunte, but they were fully booked – we toyed with the idea of searching for another one, but we both felt mysteriously drawn to assess the accommodation situation in the neighbouring smaller town of San Agustinillo – literally 2 minutes south of Mazunte. As it transpired, we found ourselves a gorgeous little guest house, right on the edge of San Agustinillo, owned by a gorgeous, warm and welcoming young couple. It seems the hands of fate delivered us to the place that was absolutely perfect for us. Mazunte was fun, hip and happening, the Pacific waves were slightly tamer than down the beach in San Augustinillo – and it had some great little eateries – and a wonderful cosmetic shop that had organic, natural products made by the local women. Zipolite was livlier – the waters were not good for swimming due to the strong undertow current...and...it seemed to be slightly over-run by hippies who seemed as though they had seen better days. San Agustinillo, nestled quietly in between Mazunte and Zipolite, whilst not exactly brimming with inspirational restaurants, had by far the best beach. It was practically deserted, and the friendly owners of the more expensive beach-side cabanas were more than happy to allow us to luxuriate in their hammocks while we soaked up the sun. They even went as far as filling up their paddling pool so Isis could splash around in it as the waves on this beach were a little too big for her. Lucy and I, however enjoyed some truly thrilling dalliances with the great Pacific waves on this beach. Not so good for surfing as they break very close to the shore, but absolutely exhilarating to swim in! Traversing the 6-foot breakers was hard work – and you just had to surrender to being totally pummled by the mighty waves until you eventually emerged on the other side of them. Then, we would gleefully enjoy swimming along the tops of the great waves, getting swept along by their great power, and gasp at the awesome sea-perspective side view of the waves breaking onto the shore. Swimming in these waves you really felt the power of the mighty Pacific. It was invigorating, exhilarating and humbling all at the same time. I've totally fallen in love with this ocean – it almost broke my heart to say goodbye to her. I could wile away endless hours gazing out at her rolling, powerful waves. But time waits for no one, and our days in Mexico were soon drawing to an end. We had to get back to Guatemala to catch our flights back to London, and we were still many, many miles away.

Before we left Mexico, Lucy and I were determined to see the pretty town of San Cristobal De Las Casas. We endured a hard 12-hour overnight bus ride to get there, and we had to leave at 6:30am the following morning to catch our bus to Guatemala, so despite being totally exhausted, we pushed on through and explored. We enjoyed taking in the sights and sounds of this very picturesque colonial town – and stocked up on nutrition at a wonderful organic vegetarian restaurant. At 6:30am the following morning, the little collectivo shuttle bus arrived at our hotel to take us to Guatemala. 14 hours and 2 bus changes later, we arrived in beautiful Antigua – our final stop before we caught our flights home. It was a gruelling couple of days of travelling, we were battered, but we had done it – we'd made it back to Guatemala. We once again managed to manifest gold out of thin air, and stayed in a beautiful $50 a night hotel for less than half price. It wasn't long before we befriended the wonderful owner, Luis. Originally a carpenter by trade, he opened La Posada San Sabastien 25 years ago, and around this time he also began collecting and restoring antiques. His beautiful small boutique hotel is brimming with fascinating trinkets and elegant antique furniture – including an enormous 100 year old xylophone. If you ever happen to find yourself in Antigua do let me know and I'll put you in touch with our lovely friend for you to stay at his delightful hotel. Antigua itself is a truly beautiful little city, and is often referred to as the jewel of Guatemala. Its cobbled streets and elegant colonial architecture make it a pleasure to amble around, the people here are extremely warm and friendly, there are delicious restaurants and cafes a-plenty – and a distinct love of the artesan lends the city a truly elegant, creative touch. Being a small city that is surrounded by volcanoes, you still feel connected to nature in a very powerful way, and the pretty, unobtrusive low-rise architecture means a birds-eye view of the city is very easily achievable from one of the many flower-trimmed roof-top terraces. We wished we had more time to spend here.

On the day of our departure, Luis himself very kindly drove us to the airport. “What an absolutely wonderful end to our amazing trip” Lucy and I both thought. We bid farewell to our new friend, and made our way into the airport with heavy hearts. It seemed the universe echoed back our reluctance to leave...we had a problem at check-in. We were due to fly from Guatemala to Panama, then Panama to Madrid, and finally Madrid to London with Iberia. We just assumed that the entire journey would be operated by Iberia, but no...it seems Iberia contract out flights to a third party airline in order to fly people to close-by Central American destinations so that Iberia can still fly passengers to Europe - and make a profit out of them. In our case we were being flown from Guatemala City to Panama with Copa Airways, in order to then be flown back to Europe with Iberia. But here's the thing...Iberia consistently fails to tell Copa about these passengers, and on a daily basis they have to deal with Iberia passengers who have paid for a ticket, but cannot fit onto the Copa flight. Today we were those passengers. Iberia had not told Copa that we were due to be on their flight from Guatemala City to Panama, and the flight was fully booked. Our other option was to wait 6 hours for an Iberian flight that would take us directly to Madrid from Guatemala, but that was also fully booked. And Iberia were due to go on strike the next day, so we were now potentially looking at not being able to leave until 6th March. Oh dear. Now I am not the sort of person who has much tolerance for such disgusting treatment of customers. Lucy even less so, so...as you can imagine, all hell broke loose at the check-in counter. Deep down of course, neither of us were particularly that bothered as to whether or not we actually got on the flight...if we didn't, then to us it was an obvious sign that we should stay, but...that's not the point. Iberia should not be permitted to treat its customers this way. The Copa staff went out of their way to get us on the flight. Five minutes before the check-out desk was due to close, there were still 2 passengers who had not arrived. I felt like I was in the middle of an action-movie: swarms of Copa staff crowded around the check-in desk as they did what they could to get us onto that flight. They decided to close the check-in desk five minutes early so we could have the unclaimed seats. What angels the Copa staff are for having to deal with such horrific administration on a daily basis. Needless to say, Iberia will be receiving a highly expressive letter of complaint from both Lucy and I. If you can help it, avoid flying with them at all costs – they are terrible – on all accounts.

And so our epic Central American journey drew to an end. What an incredible three months it has been. This trip truly surpassed all imagination. It has seen me grow in so many ways, in such a short space of time. I have developed a deep, deep love for Latin America. It's energy, vibrancy and beauty are hard to resist. Lucy and I are already plotting our return...but next time we're going to travel properly – in our own vehicle. A full-scale road trip around the Americas has been discussed on more than one occasion throughout the duration of our trip. Don't be surprise if, in a couple of years, I decide to disappear off again with Lucy and Isis in a 4x4 to take a leisurely drive around the land across the Atlantic! But for now it's time for me to embrace London, focus on my career – and really start to make those dreams manifest...