Sunday, 31 January 2010
El Tunco, El Salvador
Amazing waves, amazing weather, funky little surf village with a great
vibe, good social scene, amazing food.
Spent a few days chilling, doing absolutely nothing - we haven't
really done much of this on our travels! Today we looked after a guy
who jumped off a rock into shallow water and fractured his foot. Oh
dear. The local dentist came to the rescue and drove us to the
hospital - scary driving again! No charge for x-rays and a plaster cast!
Kirsty has been surfing loads. I haven't, I've had a sore back for
almost a month - not quite sure what's going on there. Not too serious
but not feeling like surfing.
2 more days here then off to Antigua, Guatemala for 3 nights, then we
fly to Miami for 3 nights, then back to London for a freezy few days!!
vibe, good social scene, amazing food.
Spent a few days chilling, doing absolutely nothing - we haven't
really done much of this on our travels! Today we looked after a guy
who jumped off a rock into shallow water and fractured his foot. Oh
dear. The local dentist came to the rescue and drove us to the
hospital - scary driving again! No charge for x-rays and a plaster cast!
Kirsty has been surfing loads. I haven't, I've had a sore back for
almost a month - not quite sure what's going on there. Not too serious
but not feeling like surfing.
2 more days here then off to Antigua, Guatemala for 3 nights, then we
fly to Miami for 3 nights, then back to London for a freezy few days!!
Sent from my iPhone
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Tikal to the surf
We spent an afternoon walking around the little island town of Flores.
It draws tourists simply because it lies in the middle of a lake,
connected by a bridge. After about 10 minutes we had walked around it
and had about 6 hours to kill before our night bus to Guatemala city.
We chilled out at a little cafe called 'Cool beans'. It had wifi and
hammocks, but the salsa on our nachos had that nasty fizzy off taste -
we knew immediately and got more. After cool beans we relocated to a
beautiful empty hotel across the lake, we read books and killed
mosquitoes then headed for the bus station.
We haven't done an overnight bus since the freezy freezy ice bus in
Colombia. This was the total opposite- The sauna scorcher bus. At
about 1am we awake to the booming sound of the tyre exploding. We then
sit by the road for 2 hours while the driver sorts out what to do.
They end up changing the tyre (aided by our mighty bright torch
light), but in the process manage to deflate the spare tyre... 4 tyres
across the back (1 of which was flat - but better than noisy shredded
tyre). We rolled into Guatemala city about 4 hours late.
We were heading for the pacific coast in search of waves. We caught a
chicken bus ( old American school buses now used as local buses - they
stop everywhere...extremely slow!) bound for Sipicate. The lonely
planet listed this as one of the highlights of Guatemala, surf
capital. The bus took forever, it would zoom along little country
roads picking up and dropping people off before parking up ( in the
scorching sun) in each village for 30-45 minutes. We finally arrived
at the coast, piled our stuff into a tuctuc headed for the surf
paradise hotel resort, Rancho Castillo. Tuctuc got lost and took us
somewhere totally different, then realised, then short-changed us for
his mistake. Grrrr.
So, Rancho Castillo is on the beach, separated from the town by a
swampy canal, you cross over by speedboat. First impressions were good
- resort with 2 pools, on the beach, rooms were spacious, resident
crocodile pen, massive restaurant etc. We checked in and it soon
became apparent that we were the only guests in this huge resort. They
told us the restaurant opens at 5 - We were starved from not eating
breakfast or lunch. We came back from our stroll on the beach and most
if the day staff had gone home - just 2 guys and a child remained. I
found some menus and told him what we wanted, then we
waited...waited...for an hour. We then had a conversation that
concluded that the restaurant wasn't open, we couldn't have dinner
here and that we would have to speedboat back into scuzz town to get
food. Sooooo angry (mainly because we were super hungry) our Spanish
is not great but it was clear that we were trying to order food - menu
in hand. Our nice boat driver showed us a good place to eat (he waited
for us, personal escort). The main reason we were here was fir surfing
so bright and early Kirsty heads out to check out the surf. There were
waves, but really small and it was low tide, wasn't going to happen.
We checked out (argued and paid less for the room) and got back on the
chicken bus, this time headed for the surf coast of El Salvador.
We had our bikinis in these breathable bags attached to the outside of
our backpacks, which were now on the roof of the bus. We realised
later that it must have been the overweight pervy bus conductor whol
had stolen our bikini bottoms - sicko!! Kirsty was first to notice
that they were gone. 'ah, you must have left them at the resort' I
assured her. Then I checked and mine were gone too :( yuck!
We crossed into El Salvador - tuctuc buggy assisted us between the
immigration offices at the border. We had hoped to catch a bus to the
surf town of El Tunco but all the buses only went as far as sonsonate.
We splashed out and got a taxi, which was worth every penny. Our taxi
driver was also a driving instructor, so his car had a brake pedal
under the passenger seat! I was tempted to use it soooo often as this
guy was a shocking driver. We swerved about 3 dogs before finally
smashing into one - yelp! Terrible! We arrived at El Tunco after dark
but were happy to see lots of surfers walking around. Hooray, hostel
on the beach!
It draws tourists simply because it lies in the middle of a lake,
connected by a bridge. After about 10 minutes we had walked around it
and had about 6 hours to kill before our night bus to Guatemala city.
We chilled out at a little cafe called 'Cool beans'. It had wifi and
hammocks, but the salsa on our nachos had that nasty fizzy off taste -
we knew immediately and got more. After cool beans we relocated to a
beautiful empty hotel across the lake, we read books and killed
mosquitoes then headed for the bus station.
We haven't done an overnight bus since the freezy freezy ice bus in
Colombia. This was the total opposite- The sauna scorcher bus. At
about 1am we awake to the booming sound of the tyre exploding. We then
sit by the road for 2 hours while the driver sorts out what to do.
They end up changing the tyre (aided by our mighty bright torch
light), but in the process manage to deflate the spare tyre... 4 tyres
across the back (1 of which was flat - but better than noisy shredded
tyre). We rolled into Guatemala city about 4 hours late.
We were heading for the pacific coast in search of waves. We caught a
chicken bus ( old American school buses now used as local buses - they
stop everywhere...extremely slow!) bound for Sipicate. The lonely
planet listed this as one of the highlights of Guatemala, surf
capital. The bus took forever, it would zoom along little country
roads picking up and dropping people off before parking up ( in the
scorching sun) in each village for 30-45 minutes. We finally arrived
at the coast, piled our stuff into a tuctuc headed for the surf
paradise hotel resort, Rancho Castillo. Tuctuc got lost and took us
somewhere totally different, then realised, then short-changed us for
his mistake. Grrrr.
So, Rancho Castillo is on the beach, separated from the town by a
swampy canal, you cross over by speedboat. First impressions were good
- resort with 2 pools, on the beach, rooms were spacious, resident
crocodile pen, massive restaurant etc. We checked in and it soon
became apparent that we were the only guests in this huge resort. They
told us the restaurant opens at 5 - We were starved from not eating
breakfast or lunch. We came back from our stroll on the beach and most
if the day staff had gone home - just 2 guys and a child remained. I
found some menus and told him what we wanted, then we
waited...waited...for an hour. We then had a conversation that
concluded that the restaurant wasn't open, we couldn't have dinner
here and that we would have to speedboat back into scuzz town to get
food. Sooooo angry (mainly because we were super hungry) our Spanish
is not great but it was clear that we were trying to order food - menu
in hand. Our nice boat driver showed us a good place to eat (he waited
for us, personal escort). The main reason we were here was fir surfing
so bright and early Kirsty heads out to check out the surf. There were
waves, but really small and it was low tide, wasn't going to happen.
We checked out (argued and paid less for the room) and got back on the
chicken bus, this time headed for the surf coast of El Salvador.
We had our bikinis in these breathable bags attached to the outside of
our backpacks, which were now on the roof of the bus. We realised
later that it must have been the overweight pervy bus conductor whol
had stolen our bikini bottoms - sicko!! Kirsty was first to notice
that they were gone. 'ah, you must have left them at the resort' I
assured her. Then I checked and mine were gone too :( yuck!
We crossed into El Salvador - tuctuc buggy assisted us between the
immigration offices at the border. We had hoped to catch a bus to the
surf town of El Tunco but all the buses only went as far as sonsonate.
We splashed out and got a taxi, which was worth every penny. Our taxi
driver was also a driving instructor, so his car had a brake pedal
under the passenger seat! I was tempted to use it soooo often as this
guy was a shocking driver. We swerved about 3 dogs before finally
smashing into one - yelp! Terrible! We arrived at El Tunco after dark
but were happy to see lots of surfers walking around. Hooray, hostel
on the beach!
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, 25 January 2010
Tikal
We managed to jump on the San Juan shuttle out to Tikal - although
Flores is known as the jump-off point, it's still 70 km away. There
are a couple of hotels at the main gate to Tikal, and you can camp at
Jaguar Inn. We camped, with the ants. You can go into the ruins after
4pm when you buy your ticket for the following day. We arrived too
late to do this. We woke up at 5:30 to try and watch the sunrise over
the complex. We hurried through the jungle, howler monkeys shrieking,
and stumbled into the main plaza complex...soooo misty and still
pretty dark - nobody around, very creepy! We finally made it to temple
4, the highest temple, but the mist hung around for hours, our view
was limited to about 3 metres, we were frozen and hungry so went back
to get breakfast and a picnic. We spent the rest of the day wandering
around the temples and jungly mounds - 85% of Tikal is still to be
uncovered! They have done a good job on the current restorations but
it'll be amazing to come back here years later once they have
uncovered more. All very mysterious. On one of the paths between
temples we spotted an ant trail, then another, then another, then they
all merged into one huge mass of ants - they were taking over the
entire footpath, all heading in the same direction, a sea of ants.
I've never seen anything like it! Big ants!
Flores is known as the jump-off point, it's still 70 km away. There
are a couple of hotels at the main gate to Tikal, and you can camp at
Jaguar Inn. We camped, with the ants. You can go into the ruins after
4pm when you buy your ticket for the following day. We arrived too
late to do this. We woke up at 5:30 to try and watch the sunrise over
the complex. We hurried through the jungle, howler monkeys shrieking,
and stumbled into the main plaza complex...soooo misty and still
pretty dark - nobody around, very creepy! We finally made it to temple
4, the highest temple, but the mist hung around for hours, our view
was limited to about 3 metres, we were frozen and hungry so went back
to get breakfast and a picnic. We spent the rest of the day wandering
around the temples and jungly mounds - 85% of Tikal is still to be
uncovered! They have done a good job on the current restorations but
it'll be amazing to come back here years later once they have
uncovered more. All very mysterious. On one of the paths between
temples we spotted an ant trail, then another, then another, then they
all merged into one huge mass of ants - they were taking over the
entire footpath, all heading in the same direction, a sea of ants.
I've never seen anything like it! Big ants!
So many people just come for the day, but because we were camping we
could stay until the park closed at 6pm, again we found ourselves
alone at sunset - just the zillions of birds and monkeys for company.
This morning we went to the 2 museums at Tikal. They show lots of
photos pre-restoration - the jungle had totally taken over, it's taken
them decades to clear! Also, lots of original limestone carvings and
ceramics found on the site. Very lucky to have made it up here, was
really worth it.
We're now trying to get an overnight bus to the south of Guatemala,
looking for surfing waves, we seem to be ahead of schedule!
Sent from my iPhone
Rio Dulce
Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We caught the ferry back to La Ceiba, taxi shared to the bus station
and hopped in a bus to San Pedro Sula where we stayed in Hostel
Tamarindo. We popped our for food - Spanish fail. Couldn't read the
menu and ended up with a plate of fried plantain with kebab style
stuff on top.
Woke up at 4:15 am to catch a bus to Rio Dulce. All we knew, from
google searching and blog write-ups, was that the bus company was
called Fuente Del Norte. Sure enough, Fuente Del Norte had buses into
Guatemala across that northern border, we caught the 5:30 bus. Border
crossing was easy, stated on the bus but jumped off in Guatemala to
get passport stamp. Had to change buses in Morales. We were in Rio
Dulce by 10:30. Rio Dulce is a river that cones in from the Caribbean
and opens out into Lake Izabal. They say it is the safest place in the
caribbean to keep your boat in hurricane season, as a result there is
a substantial international community based here, or their boats are
based here anyway. We stayed in a hotel across the bay from the main
town, you could only get there by boat- Hacienda Tijax. It was all
built on stilts with wooden walkways linking all the buildings together.
Rio Dulce is a tiny town, crazy. We went by collectivo to a thermal
waterfall. Cold river with a scorching hot waterfall cascading into it
- almost too hot to stand under! The next morning we went to see the
old Spanish Fort, El Castillo de San Felipe - built in 1652 to keep
pirates out, pictures of Johnny Depp around the place.
We jumped on another Fuente Del Norte bus bound for Flores, the
jumping off point for Tikal. Very hot bus, we stood for about half the
4 hour trip. Beautiful countryside - very lush and green.
We caught the ferry back to La Ceiba, taxi shared to the bus station
and hopped in a bus to San Pedro Sula where we stayed in Hostel
Tamarindo. We popped our for food - Spanish fail. Couldn't read the
menu and ended up with a plate of fried plantain with kebab style
stuff on top.
Woke up at 4:15 am to catch a bus to Rio Dulce. All we knew, from
google searching and blog write-ups, was that the bus company was
called Fuente Del Norte. Sure enough, Fuente Del Norte had buses into
Guatemala across that northern border, we caught the 5:30 bus. Border
crossing was easy, stated on the bus but jumped off in Guatemala to
get passport stamp. Had to change buses in Morales. We were in Rio
Dulce by 10:30. Rio Dulce is a river that cones in from the Caribbean
and opens out into Lake Izabal. They say it is the safest place in the
caribbean to keep your boat in hurricane season, as a result there is
a substantial international community based here, or their boats are
based here anyway. We stayed in a hotel across the bay from the main
town, you could only get there by boat- Hacienda Tijax. It was all
built on stilts with wooden walkways linking all the buildings together.
Rio Dulce is a tiny town, crazy. We went by collectivo to a thermal
waterfall. Cold river with a scorching hot waterfall cascading into it
- almost too hot to stand under! The next morning we went to see the
old Spanish Fort, El Castillo de San Felipe - built in 1652 to keep
pirates out, pictures of Johnny Depp around the place.
We jumped on another Fuente Del Norte bus bound for Flores, the
jumping off point for Tikal. Very hot bus, we stood for about half the
4 hour trip. Beautiful countryside - very lush and green.
Sent from my iPhone
Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
The ferry was like a giant speedboat. Pancakes for breakfast. Sunny
day, all looked calm, 5 minutes into the crossing the stewards handed
everyone an orange and white stripped sick bag. Felt rough, worried
about the pancakes in my belly, moved downstairs...everyone was
throwing up, stewards constantly on the move with their bags and
tissues. Gross!
Arrived in paradise. Headed to 'West End' and found our apartment at
Arco Iris. Amazing to have a kitchen after eating out every day for
months! Everything on the island was expensive, more like normal US
prices - you pay to be in Caribbean paradise. It was exactly what
paradise should be like though... lapping water along White sand
beach, little jetties going out over crystal clear water, bars on the
beach, and over the water, white sofas with overhanging curtains
overlooking the beach etc.
We were here to dive, so we went with Coconut Tree Divers - looked
like a fun sociable shop, owned by British ex-pat, PJ. $25 per dive.
Amazing reef all around the island, wrecks, caves, tunnels, loads of
fish, turtles. I did 11 dives, didn't see anything huge or unusual,
but I've been spoilt by Thailand, Phillipines and Okinawa. We did see
the biggest moray eel I have ever seen - huge long and very fat. Also
a huge area of garden eels, don't see them very often but very cute
little things. Kirty's daily mission was to find gear that fitted her
- she's tiny, and all the wetsuits were huge and holey. Her nickname
was 'The bag lady' as some of her wetsuits were shredded and hanging
off her. We had one day where we both had the wrong sized fins. Tragic.
We walked along the beaches checking out all the resorts - had
cocktails at Luna Beach, where they filmed a series of Temptation
Island. It was nice but not as grand as we had expected. We wandered
off the beach into this insanely nice resort, it seemed totally
deserted. They had glass bottom canoes, which I thought was a spark of
genius. We found ourselves on a rope swing bridge across a lake and
proceeded across and down to sqawling parrots in cages - huge brightly
coloured birds. We noticed some White faced monkeys running around, as
they came closer we started to get a little nervous. They were very
cheeky and were obviously not afraid of us, probably looking for food.
As more and more came, they became bolder and bolder until one of them
stood up and grabbed my legs. Time to evacuate! It started to bare
it's ugly teeth. Cute monkey became scary screeching monkey, we backed
off then ran, as I looked back over my shoulder o could see at least 5
of them gallopping along behind be at great pace, all with bared
teeth... we picked up our pace - difficult as we were laughing
hysterically. We have this entire episode on flip video.
We escaped the monkeys, then got eaten by huge mosquitoes before
finding our way to West Bay beach.
We had one night out, starting at Luna beach resort drinking monkey
lalas cocktails, then walking back through town. The night ended with
Kirsty dancing on a bar to get some shiny beads. She only managed one
dive the following morning.
We left Roatan after 5 days. Onto our last country, Guatemala!
Sent from my iPhone
Friday, 22 January 2010
Nicaragua to Honduras
We arrived in Managua around 3pm. Our bus to Honduras left the next
morning at 5am, so we were staying at the TICA bus terminal. Really
basic hotel in a shoddy area, but perfect for the early start. We
managed to hitch a lift to the shopping centre, shops, food and
cinema. We saw Avatar; brilliant movie. We had pops milkshake,
reminded us of Costa Rica. Argued with taxi man over the fare... this
happens EVERY time now, frustrating.
Our target destination in Honduras was the island of Roatan off the
Caribbean coast. That night we were heading for the Honduran capital
city, Tegucigalpa. After a few announcements (and watching avatar
again- screener bad quality) I realised that this very bus was heading
up to the Caribbean coast, so we decided to stay on the bus and
continue as far as San Pedro Sula. There were lots of foreigners on
the bus, all headed for the islands, and they were keen to get to the
ferry town that same night, we decided to join them and jumped off the
TICA bus to get on a more direct bus to take us to La Ceiba. We waited
2 hours for this bus, after 12 hours on the road already we were
starting to flake. As the bus was coming into La Ceiba suddenly a
massive smash crash... A rock had come hurling through the bus window
sending glass flying everywhere. In that moment we were terrified, but
as soon as we realised what it was we just felt relieved that it
wasn't our window, could've been really bad.
We rolled into Banana Republic guest house around 1am, and were gone
by 8am, off to the ferry.
Bed time! Next update coming soooooon xxx
morning at 5am, so we were staying at the TICA bus terminal. Really
basic hotel in a shoddy area, but perfect for the early start. We
managed to hitch a lift to the shopping centre, shops, food and
cinema. We saw Avatar; brilliant movie. We had pops milkshake,
reminded us of Costa Rica. Argued with taxi man over the fare... this
happens EVERY time now, frustrating.
Our target destination in Honduras was the island of Roatan off the
Caribbean coast. That night we were heading for the Honduran capital
city, Tegucigalpa. After a few announcements (and watching avatar
again- screener bad quality) I realised that this very bus was heading
up to the Caribbean coast, so we decided to stay on the bus and
continue as far as San Pedro Sula. There were lots of foreigners on
the bus, all headed for the islands, and they were keen to get to the
ferry town that same night, we decided to join them and jumped off the
TICA bus to get on a more direct bus to take us to La Ceiba. We waited
2 hours for this bus, after 12 hours on the road already we were
starting to flake. As the bus was coming into La Ceiba suddenly a
massive smash crash... A rock had come hurling through the bus window
sending glass flying everywhere. In that moment we were terrified, but
as soon as we realised what it was we just felt relieved that it
wasn't our window, could've been really bad.
We rolled into Banana Republic guest house around 1am, and were gone
by 8am, off to the ferry.
Bed time! Next update coming soooooon xxx
Sent from my iPhone
Granada, Nicaragua
I'm way way behind on this blog so I'm going to do highlights!
Granada. Beautiful little colonial town, really well preserved, every
building has a beautiful courtyard, including our hostel. Tourism has
been a main focus of Granada for a long time. If you had a week's
holiday and you wanted to see Nicaragua then you could totally base
yourself in Granada; big volcano nearby, Ometepe island with the two
volcanoes, the coast, horse ranches, beautiful countryside, it's all
right there.
I bought a painting and posted it to Australia; I had it for about 10
minutes!
I burned photos onto disk. Kirsty bought a ring with a crocodile tooth
in it. We did laundry. We wanted to buy hammocks, big beautiful
hammocks, we managed to find some self control.
We went to a Spanish horse expo, but nothing was happening, so we
left. We had to get to Managua to catch a bus to Honduras.
Granada. Beautiful little colonial town, really well preserved, every
building has a beautiful courtyard, including our hostel. Tourism has
been a main focus of Granada for a long time. If you had a week's
holiday and you wanted to see Nicaragua then you could totally base
yourself in Granada; big volcano nearby, Ometepe island with the two
volcanoes, the coast, horse ranches, beautiful countryside, it's all
right there.
I bought a painting and posted it to Australia; I had it for about 10
minutes!
I burned photos onto disk. Kirsty bought a ring with a crocodile tooth
in it. We did laundry. We wanted to buy hammocks, big beautiful
hammocks, we managed to find some self control.
We went to a Spanish horse expo, but nothing was happening, so we
left. We had to get to Managua to catch a bus to Honduras.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Costa Rica to Nicaragua
We had heard lots of bad things about this border crossing, mainly that it took hours and hours to get through as it is a major route. As we approached there were queues and queues of trucks and cars, but our taxi drove straight to the front, dropped us off, and we lined up for about 15 minutes, exited Costa Rica. We had read that the distance between the passport control offices was really far and that you could rent golf buggies, well, we didn't see any golf buggies, and walked for about 10 minutes and found the Nicaragua office. Again, a short queue and it was done. Much quicker than Costa Rica - Panama.
We had teamed up with 2 other Brits, who were heading to the same Island - Isla de Ometepe, in Lake Nicaragua. This island is formed by two volcanoes, one active, the other dormant. We stayed in the main town the first night, the only place with an ATM on the island, Moyogalpa. The 2nd night we stayed in Santa Domingo, on the thin land between the volcanos, on the beach of the lake. The next day we climbed the active volcano, Conception. We got as high as the cloud level, we were nearly blown off the side, it was sooooo windy. We were up and down in 5 hours, much quicker than we thought, so managed to get a ferry back to the mainland the same day. Our next stop was Playa Maderas, north of San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific Coast. We haggled our taxi driver down to 25 dollars and off we went. The roads soon deteriorated and we got totally lost, but eventually rocked up at the much talked about 'Camping Matilda's'. It was dark and we were shattered from the volcano climb and accepted a dorm room on the beach for 10 dollars each. We pretty much ate dinner and went straight to bed.
The next morning we woke up. Kirsty had been eaten alive by an army of big red ants in the night....oh dear! We decided that we would have to change rooms if we stayed another night. We stepped outside and were blasted by the first of many insane gusts of wind, blowing sand into whirlwinds, in our ears, eyes, nose, mouth, sand everywhere. It was like a typhoon, but it was sunny. We stumbled out onto the beach and noticed a group of people all standing around. We went over and it was a turtle, covering up her eggs - which had been taken away by the manager of the hotel for safety - she had birthed 85 eggs and was about to head back to the ocean. It was an amazing sight, she didn't seem to be at all worried about all the people watching her. Great start to the day! We got breakfast, pancakes and fruit with syrup...soon to be covered in sand. It was almost impossible to eat!
We tried to upgrade rooms, but they have a policy where if you stay one night in a room it's super expensive, so after being sandblasted for about 4 hours, we decided to make an exit and head back to the town of San Juan del Sur. Also, the main reason we had gone to Playa Maderas was for surfing...but there were NO waves. This coast is usually great for surfing because of the offshore winds created by the presence of the huge Lake Nicaragua, however, there seems to be severe windy conditions at the moment, destroying any possibility of surfing, plus no Pacific swell.
We spent the afternoon at a resort called Pelican Eyes, on the hilltop overlooking San Juan del Sur. They have amazing infinity pools and food and cocktails. Very luxurious. It costs about 250 US dollars a night to stay there, so after sunset we retired to our 7 dollar hostel instead! The typhoon style winds continue!
We are currently in San Juan del Sur, about to head to the touristy colonial town of Granada, 2 hours away.
Trying to escape the wind.
We had teamed up with 2 other Brits, who were heading to the same Island - Isla de Ometepe, in Lake Nicaragua. This island is formed by two volcanoes, one active, the other dormant. We stayed in the main town the first night, the only place with an ATM on the island, Moyogalpa. The 2nd night we stayed in Santa Domingo, on the thin land between the volcanos, on the beach of the lake. The next day we climbed the active volcano, Conception. We got as high as the cloud level, we were nearly blown off the side, it was sooooo windy. We were up and down in 5 hours, much quicker than we thought, so managed to get a ferry back to the mainland the same day. Our next stop was Playa Maderas, north of San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific Coast. We haggled our taxi driver down to 25 dollars and off we went. The roads soon deteriorated and we got totally lost, but eventually rocked up at the much talked about 'Camping Matilda's'. It was dark and we were shattered from the volcano climb and accepted a dorm room on the beach for 10 dollars each. We pretty much ate dinner and went straight to bed.
The next morning we woke up. Kirsty had been eaten alive by an army of big red ants in the night....oh dear! We decided that we would have to change rooms if we stayed another night. We stepped outside and were blasted by the first of many insane gusts of wind, blowing sand into whirlwinds, in our ears, eyes, nose, mouth, sand everywhere. It was like a typhoon, but it was sunny. We stumbled out onto the beach and noticed a group of people all standing around. We went over and it was a turtle, covering up her eggs - which had been taken away by the manager of the hotel for safety - she had birthed 85 eggs and was about to head back to the ocean. It was an amazing sight, she didn't seem to be at all worried about all the people watching her. Great start to the day! We got breakfast, pancakes and fruit with syrup...soon to be covered in sand. It was almost impossible to eat!
We tried to upgrade rooms, but they have a policy where if you stay one night in a room it's super expensive, so after being sandblasted for about 4 hours, we decided to make an exit and head back to the town of San Juan del Sur. Also, the main reason we had gone to Playa Maderas was for surfing...but there were NO waves. This coast is usually great for surfing because of the offshore winds created by the presence of the huge Lake Nicaragua, however, there seems to be severe windy conditions at the moment, destroying any possibility of surfing, plus no Pacific swell.
We spent the afternoon at a resort called Pelican Eyes, on the hilltop overlooking San Juan del Sur. They have amazing infinity pools and food and cocktails. Very luxurious. It costs about 250 US dollars a night to stay there, so after sunset we retired to our 7 dollar hostel instead! The typhoon style winds continue!
We are currently in San Juan del Sur, about to head to the touristy colonial town of Granada, 2 hours away.
Trying to escape the wind.
Mal Pais, Surf Camp, Costa Rica
We said goodbye to the paradise beach and zoomed by speedboat to the peninsula surf town of Mal Pais.
Kirsty had been here before, so it was all very easy and familiar. Mal Pais Surf Camp is a very special place. It is the friendliest place we have stayed at on our travels, everyone talks to everyone. Most people are beginner surfers, so the atmosphere is really relaxed, everyone sharing their surfing attempt stories, wipeout stories, standing up without falling over stories...all good. The waves were much more beginner friendly and I feel like my surfing really progressed, hooray. It always feels like a battle of survival though, big wave coming straight at me...yikes, in the wrong place, turn round and ride it in or get mashed like in a washing machine. Good fun. After 3 days of this I felt pretty battered and bruised though and I was ready to have a break!
We had one brilliant evening where we ran up to a 5 star villa resort, they had a swim-up bar in an infinity pool, overlooking the whole coastline - amazing sunset. You barbeque your own food, then drink more cocktails in the pool.
We decided our next stop would be Nicaragua. The buses around that peninsula are really limited, so we jumped on one of the shuttles and headed for Nicaragua.
Kirsty had been here before, so it was all very easy and familiar. Mal Pais Surf Camp is a very special place. It is the friendliest place we have stayed at on our travels, everyone talks to everyone. Most people are beginner surfers, so the atmosphere is really relaxed, everyone sharing their surfing attempt stories, wipeout stories, standing up without falling over stories...all good. The waves were much more beginner friendly and I feel like my surfing really progressed, hooray. It always feels like a battle of survival though, big wave coming straight at me...yikes, in the wrong place, turn round and ride it in or get mashed like in a washing machine. Good fun. After 3 days of this I felt pretty battered and bruised though and I was ready to have a break!
We had one brilliant evening where we ran up to a 5 star villa resort, they had a swim-up bar in an infinity pool, overlooking the whole coastline - amazing sunset. You barbeque your own food, then drink more cocktails in the pool.
We decided our next stop would be Nicaragua. The buses around that peninsula are really limited, so we jumped on one of the shuttles and headed for Nicaragua.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
New Year 2010!
At the beach house we slept, surfed, played tennis, played cards,
played articulate, played drinking games, laughed a lot, body surfed,
football, napped, cooked, looked at iguanas, looked at monkeys, looked
at tucans, ate out at amazing places, took a lot of surf photos,
celebrated New Year, played golf, Internet, got happy, got sad. 2
stories from the week make the cut: 1) Kirsty and her fungi. 2) Will
and the intruder.
Full details coming soon.
played articulate, played drinking games, laughed a lot, body surfed,
football, napped, cooked, looked at iguanas, looked at monkeys, looked
at tucans, ate out at amazing places, took a lot of surf photos,
celebrated New Year, played golf, Internet, got happy, got sad. 2
stories from the week make the cut: 1) Kirsty and her fungi. 2) Will
and the intruder.
Full details coming soon.
Sent from my iPhone
Bocas Del Toro, Panama
We decided to squeeze in a little trip to a group of islands called
Bocas Del Toro, about an hour east of the Costa Rican border. Big
queues at the border, but a good opportunity to make some new friends
- everyone was going to the same place. We stayed on Isla de Colon,
the main hub. It was scorching! The hottest place we've been so far.
We decided to rent bicycles and cycle 15 km to a beach on the other
side of the island. These bikes were creaky and rusty but we were
confident they would make the journey. All was good until the road
turned to deeeep gravel, and the hills. Kirsty's bike wouldn't go into
the easy gear so we switched. After about 10 minutes I realise that I
can't actually turn the pedals! Oh no! We still had 8 kms to go until
the beach. Two policemen stopped on their motorbike to try to help us
with their Swiss army knife - they failed. We ended up running with
one bike, freewheeling down the hills, legs out the sides, while the
other person rode the ok bike. We switched over a few times and
managed to reach the beach just before sunset. There was a minibus
waiting ready to head back to the town, they driver was happy to throw
our bikes on the roof, but he was leaving in 13 minutes! Quick! We
were absolutely dripping in sweat after our mini duathlon, we ripped
off our clothes and sprinted into the water. Quick photo session
before jumping in the minibus. The reason we had headed to the beach
was to look at starfish, but we didn't have time to go and search for
them.
That night we met 3 Brazillian blokes. Alex owned a yacht and had been
sailing around the Caribbean for the past 15 months. Alex was a keen
surfer and had 6 surf boards on board, also scuba gear and fishing
equipment. They offered to take us out on the yacht the next day. At
first we were sceptical but after dinner together we had decided that
they were safe friendly guys just wanting to hang out. So next day off
we go, beautiful yacht, cruise up to deserted beaches, snorkelling
with the tropical fish, surfed off the boat, we decided not to dive as
the conditions weren't great. Perfect day, sailing back we saw
dolphins. We got back and totally crashed out; we got fried in the hot
hot sun and after cycling and running the day before and surfing all
day...shattered!
Day 3 we went on an organised boat tour to see a few different
islands. First stop Dolphin Bay...picture 15 speedboats, all zooming
across the bay looking for dolphins. If I was a dolphin I would not
hang out there. Anyway we saw a few before heading off to some other
islands. Then it chucked it down with rain, the warmest place was in
the ocean. Headed to another island for lunch and we totally froze.
Last stop was red frog beach...famous for red frogs!
The coolest bar that we found was a sunken shipwreck with decking
around it, spotlights in the water, you could see all the jellyfish
and fish swimming around. We never made it to the illusive Aqua
Lounge, on the neighbouring island - they had one of those big
hampster ball things.
Next morning our goal was to go from Panama back to Costa Rica,
through San Jose and down to Andrew's beach house just west of Jaco on
the Pacific coast. A full day of boats and buses.
Bocas Del Toro, about an hour east of the Costa Rican border. Big
queues at the border, but a good opportunity to make some new friends
- everyone was going to the same place. We stayed on Isla de Colon,
the main hub. It was scorching! The hottest place we've been so far.
We decided to rent bicycles and cycle 15 km to a beach on the other
side of the island. These bikes were creaky and rusty but we were
confident they would make the journey. All was good until the road
turned to deeeep gravel, and the hills. Kirsty's bike wouldn't go into
the easy gear so we switched. After about 10 minutes I realise that I
can't actually turn the pedals! Oh no! We still had 8 kms to go until
the beach. Two policemen stopped on their motorbike to try to help us
with their Swiss army knife - they failed. We ended up running with
one bike, freewheeling down the hills, legs out the sides, while the
other person rode the ok bike. We switched over a few times and
managed to reach the beach just before sunset. There was a minibus
waiting ready to head back to the town, they driver was happy to throw
our bikes on the roof, but he was leaving in 13 minutes! Quick! We
were absolutely dripping in sweat after our mini duathlon, we ripped
off our clothes and sprinted into the water. Quick photo session
before jumping in the minibus. The reason we had headed to the beach
was to look at starfish, but we didn't have time to go and search for
them.
That night we met 3 Brazillian blokes. Alex owned a yacht and had been
sailing around the Caribbean for the past 15 months. Alex was a keen
surfer and had 6 surf boards on board, also scuba gear and fishing
equipment. They offered to take us out on the yacht the next day. At
first we were sceptical but after dinner together we had decided that
they were safe friendly guys just wanting to hang out. So next day off
we go, beautiful yacht, cruise up to deserted beaches, snorkelling
with the tropical fish, surfed off the boat, we decided not to dive as
the conditions weren't great. Perfect day, sailing back we saw
dolphins. We got back and totally crashed out; we got fried in the hot
hot sun and after cycling and running the day before and surfing all
day...shattered!
Day 3 we went on an organised boat tour to see a few different
islands. First stop Dolphin Bay...picture 15 speedboats, all zooming
across the bay looking for dolphins. If I was a dolphin I would not
hang out there. Anyway we saw a few before heading off to some other
islands. Then it chucked it down with rain, the warmest place was in
the ocean. Headed to another island for lunch and we totally froze.
Last stop was red frog beach...famous for red frogs!
The coolest bar that we found was a sunken shipwreck with decking
around it, spotlights in the water, you could see all the jellyfish
and fish swimming around. We never made it to the illusive Aqua
Lounge, on the neighbouring island - they had one of those big
hampster ball things.
Next morning our goal was to go from Panama back to Costa Rica,
through San Jose and down to Andrew's beach house just west of Jaco on
the Pacific coast. A full day of boats and buses.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
San Jose and the Caribbean Coast, Costa Rica
We arrived at the airport LATE, but boyfriend Andrew was there to pick us up, yey. He drove us to his house in Santa Ana, overlooking the whole city - a really beautiful spot, and such an amazing house. After all the hostels and buses, it felt like we had been rescued, taken in, properly looked after!
We stayed 2 nights before heading to the Caribbean Coast for Christmas.
Our first stop was Cahuita (4 hours from San Jose) - a tiny little reggae town with a national park right next to it. After seeing hardly any animals in the amazon, we were pretty excited about seeing more - loads of monkeys and crab-eating raccoons. One bold monkey tried to steal Kirsty's sunglasses.
The next town along the coast is Puerto Viejo. This is where we were for Christmas Day, we had heard that it was a bit more of a party town. Our expensive hostel was swarming in mosquitoes, and they had overbooked, so we managed to move to a nicer hostel more than half the price, hooray. We ate lots of seafood and lay on Playa Negro - black sand beach. It wasn't the nicest beach in the world, and wondered why people raved about this town so much. In the afternoon we went for a walk along the coast and discovered the white sand beach, where all the surfing waves were...and all the gringoes too! Everything made more sense after seeing that beach! We saw dolphins in the sea as we waited for the bus heading for Panama!
We stayed 2 nights before heading to the Caribbean Coast for Christmas.
Our first stop was Cahuita (4 hours from San Jose) - a tiny little reggae town with a national park right next to it. After seeing hardly any animals in the amazon, we were pretty excited about seeing more - loads of monkeys and crab-eating raccoons. One bold monkey tried to steal Kirsty's sunglasses.
The next town along the coast is Puerto Viejo. This is where we were for Christmas Day, we had heard that it was a bit more of a party town. Our expensive hostel was swarming in mosquitoes, and they had overbooked, so we managed to move to a nicer hostel more than half the price, hooray. We ate lots of seafood and lay on Playa Negro - black sand beach. It wasn't the nicest beach in the world, and wondered why people raved about this town so much. In the afternoon we went for a walk along the coast and discovered the white sand beach, where all the surfing waves were...and all the gringoes too! Everything made more sense after seeing that beach! We saw dolphins in the sea as we waited for the bus heading for Panama!
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