31 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are now in Costa Rica, entering a few days back throught the border town Peña Blancas. It wasn an interesting border crossing, as it was the first one where we had any kind of wait involved. This was our 8th border crossing in 3 months, and before this one, I dont think it ever took longer than 15 minutes and there was never more than 5 or 6 people ahead of us. When we hit the border this time, from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, there was a long line that ran out the front door and around the side of the building well into the back. My guess is there were over 100 people waiting for entry. Mari and I waited in line for over an hour, practicing our lies on how we were going to convince the agent that we had no intention of staying in Costa Rica. Which isnt much of a lie, but we heard rumors about the entry that indicated that we would need proof illustrating that we would be leaving within our 30 day visa period - meaning that typically people show their exiting bus or airline tickets when entering the country. As we had no exit plan, we were practicing our lies. But as it turns out, the agent couldnt have cared less - stamping our passports and moving us along without a word.

From the border we took a bus to Liberia, where we ate lunch, grabbed some cash from the cash machine, and caught another bus out to Playa Tamarindo (playa = beach) - one of the top ten must see locations within Costa Rica according to some website Mari found before we left. As it turned out, Tamarindo is the smaller scale equivalent of Cancun on the Costa Rican coast. This means high prices (possibly the highest in Costa Rica - which is already a shock to our central american price scale) and lots of foreigners. We left the very next day, headed to Playa Brasilito, which we heard was nice and beautiful and much more adequately priced for travelers like ourselves. Brasilito was beautiful, with a nearby strip of shacks serving up cheap casadas (chicken, rice, beans, fried plantain plate) right off the main muddy sand beach. This beach was like the beach at San Juan del Sur, where the sand is more of a fine muddy clay mixture, that fills each crashing wave with a muddy brown look. The water feels warm and great, but when you leave the water you are covered in a fine silt. Having heard of another nearby beach, we walked down the main beach and crossed over a tree covered bluff and descended down into another little beach where the sand was composed of millions and trillions of shell pieces, some large, some small, and some rubbed down over centuries into a fine sand. It was absolutely spectacular to imagine the timeline of that beach and how it was created. How many years upon years does it take a beach to accumulate hundreds of square feet of deep crushed shell sand? I dont know, I can barely wrap my head around that thought. But I love thinking about it.

Anyways, after busing around all day yesterday trying to reach our third and final Pacific Coast beach called Montezuma, we found it nearly impossible to get there. Even though on the map it looks like there are roads that go everywhere we want to go, the bus routes simply do not go there. We would have had to take a bus around the peninsula, take two ferries, and another bus just to reach this beach that looks like it should be within reach of a 3hour bus trip. Anyway, we changed our plans yesterday returning north to Liberia (where we had just been 2 days before) in order to continue our path in a new brighter direction. I will pause here for a few thoughts on Costa Rica.

• In Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, there was always an autobus, minivan, collectivo, truck, or chicken bus to anywhere we wanted to go. Even down the worst, broken, pot holed streets heading somewhere, or no where. Yet, somehow here in Costa Rica, even though the quality of buses and seats has improved a bit, the actual bus service is appauling. As we are finding out, we really need to plan a bit better to work around limited bus schedules and services like never before. Through all of central america we never had to wait long for a bus, there were always so many going in all directions, and there was always someone there pestering you as to where you were headed and ushering you quickly in the right direction. Here, its completely different. We are waiting all the time for buses, as they run on schedules. Plus, there is no one ushering us to the bus we need, so we are left asking other passangers and vendors bus times and schedules. Its got us a bit confused. It seems the more modern the country, the more backwards the bus system. Its totally confusing. We want our hectic functioning crappy bus system back. We laughed at it, hated it at times, but it was cheap and functioned perfectly. Oh, I forgot to mention the bus is expensive here. Its helping to destroy our once, pre-established budget.
  

Okay, well Mari and I are headed to a town called La Fortuna near Volcan Arenal. We would have left today and been there already except we didnt know then the intricacies of the bus system as well as we do now. Thus we will head out tomorrow morning. Liberia to Cañas, Cañas to Tilaran, Tilaran to La Fortuna. All this effort to be near Volcan Arenal, a true firebreathing dragon of a volcano. After seeing two volcanos that function like a glorified chimney, Mari and I decided it was time to see a volcano with attitude that let off its steam with true passion - spewing lava and fire. We hope it still has a bit of an internal struggle to show us when we arrive.

Today we ran into a couple we hadnt seen since we were back in Valladolid, Mexico - before christmas. Its funny to think that all this time, moving from country to country, we have been traveling on somewhat similar paths, but never ran into one anther until today. Unfortunately, they fly back to South Africa in a week or so, so we wont be seeing much of them in our future travels. Thats one of the interesting things about traveling for so long and along such a narrow swath of land such as central america - we run into the same people every so often along the way.

Later, I believe we are headed out to see a movie. Its a toss up between the new Tron, and another which I have forgotten the name - red something. I love hitting the cities with cinemas now, it offers me a little taste of home. Even though I didnt hit the cinema much at home, I just love watching movies.

Wishing everyone the best - Travis (and Mari)

27 de Enero 2011

San Juan del Sur

Not much to do here but enjoy the sun and the beach and possibly a good book. Prices are kinda high (relatively of course) compared to other locations in Nicaragua, thus Mari and I have been eating food in the comedores inside the mercado, as the restaurants that cater to foreigners have hiked prices a bit. The mercado serves local food, grilled chicken with rice, beans, a small salad and a tortilla. A plate full of food for 50 cordobas, which is just over $2 USD.

This is a big surfing town. There are surf shops, and surf board repairs, signs for surf lessons and surf hostels and hotels. Seems like this might be the place to be if you like dreadlocks and surfing. As we do not surf, or have dreadlocks, it seems we will be moving on possibly tomorrow. Either headed into Costa Rica, or heading south down the coast to make one last beach stop before exiting Nicaragua.

I think I am tanner now than possibly ever before. When I take a shower and look down at my tan lines, its shocking. My butt is white white white, while the rest of me shades to darker at the extremities. Amazingly, my arms actually got burned the other day when we rented the motorcycle on Ometepe. I was amazed as my arms are the darkest part of my entire body, yet they are still able to succumb to the intense sun rays in this area. Reminding me to be careful when removing my shirt at the beach.

I dont know if anyone pays attention to my book list on the side of the blog, but right now I am reading Eat Pray Love. And its quite amazing. I have never read Elizabeth Gilbert before, and I am quite certain this must be an Oprah book. Mariana laughed that I was reading a girl book. But I must say, I am really enjoying her journey within the pages, searching for pleasure and discovery. Its broken into thirds. The first part is her trip to Italy which I thoroughly enjoyed. Especially contrasting her thoughts on love, life and marriage while traveling in a foreign land learning another language. Very insightful. The 2nd part is a spiritual journey that is interesting, but does not click with me on a deeper lever. Currently I am on the last third of the book, a trip she takes to Indonesia staying with a local medicine man. Quite interesting.

I have been lucky with the book exchanges. And I personally believe that all the books I have read are great picks. Yet yesterday, I found a true gem. Eduardo Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America." This is the book to read on this trip. Eduardo Galeano is from Uruguay, and is Mari's hero in many ways. This is the book that Hugo Chavez gave Obama at the 5th Summit of the Americas, immediately jumping from the 54,295th most popular book on Amazon to #2 on the list the day after. Mari has been dying for me to read some of his books and it looks like the time is now.





Ciao for now.

26 de Enero 2011

Mari and I left Ometepe this morning. Hopping on the ferry back to San Jorge (60 cordoba each), where we caught a taxi back to the Rivas bus teminal (20 cordobas each), where we caught a bus to San Juan del Sur (15 cordobas). 190 codobas = $8.60 USD. Not bad for a ferry, taxi, and bus.

San Juan del Sur is on the Pacific Ocean (its nice to be back) and its our first time back on the Pacific in just under 3 months, as our 3 month traveling anniversary is right around the corner. This place is fairly gringo-fied, and it took us a while of bypassing $70 hotels til we found one in our budget. We are staying at a place named Casa 28 for $14 a night. You can tell when you are back in traveler destinations when the prices are quoted in $USD's.

Anyway, the beach is a fine silty sand, sorta muddy and clayey, but still soft and beautiful. The water is a greenish blue hue and swimmable. The harbor is full of boats rocking and swaying with the tide, and the sunset was beautifully orange and brilliant.

I believe I am catching a cold (unbelievable!!!!) as I have a sore throat and my head feels a bit light. Mari is getting hungry. So its time to say goodnight and go prepare some dinner and tea.

Ciao.

24 y 25 de Enero 2011

Mari and I visited La Isla de Ometepe in Lago de Nicaragua, staying two nights in a town called Moyogalpa. This island is quite beautiful, as both halves of the island are composed of volcanoes jetting up in the center, typically hiding their heads in the cloud cover above.


The first night we stayed in a place near the ferry dock named Hotel Ometepetl for $15 USD. It was okay, nothing special except that we had a television for the first time in a long time that recieved fuzzy yet watchable reception. It was more than good enough for us to watch some spanish versioned Family Guy and Simpsons episodes. But after one night, we decided to switch and ended up at a place named Hotel Sinai for $8 USD. Cheaper and actually not too shabby.

The first night on the island we relaxed, ate pizza, drank some beer, and watched a bit of television. The following day after switching hotels, we rented a motorcycle for the day to explore a bit of the island. After a quick refresher on how to change gears, and map in hand, Mari and I set off to circumnavigate the island and take in the little towns dispersed outside the main thoroughfare of Moyogalpa.

View from the ferry as we approached the island.

Look at this little cutie with her pet bird. The children on the trip are literally killing us with their inherent cuteness.

As Mari and I were cruising around on the motorcycle we passed this duo placed in charge of the herd.

We stopped off for a quick swim in Lago de Nicaragua at a little beach called Charco Verde. And I mean little. It was tiny. But I kept hearing that the lake waters are high, so perhaps the beach simply disappeared for a bit beneath the depth of the water. The sand is black, with bits of polished quartz flecked within. Upon leaving the beach, this is the view of Volcan Concepcion we encountered. Nearly rid of its hat cloud and visibly spewing smoke.

The sunset right at the ferry dock, setting over the Lake. I took this pic as trucks full of plantains were boarding the ferry back to San Jorge.

Ometepe was a great stop, and what a unique location in the world. A twin volcanoe island in the middle of a giant lake. How much more picturesque can it get?

Portraits

Mari and I arent big on setting the camera on auto-timer, or asking other people to snap a pic in order to capture a photo of ourselves in front of some marvelous site or other. Typically, which ever of us that has the camera sneeks in a quick pic here and there capturing the other. Realizing that most of the pics on this site dont actually contain images of us, I figured I would throw a few up especially for the folks back home.


Mari in a coffee shop in Granada. One of the greatest things about Central America is the amount of liquados, or batidos that are available everywhere. Liquados and batidos are fruit smoothies, made with either milk or water and whatever fruit they have available. A typical banana and milk batido here costs about 20 cordobas and is absolutely delicious.

Travis eating lunch Volcan Masaya. Mari prepared some great cream cheese and roasted chicken sandwhiches for us to enjoy on our day trip up the mountain. We are sitting eating, enjoying the breeze and the wonderful view spread out before us.

Mari on the ferry from san Jorge to La Isla de Ometepe. The waves were strong when we set off, and waves pounded the side of the boat splashing water up over the edge and onto the vehicles on the back deck. Mari was a bit worried at the beginning, here in the picture, but soon the waves calmed and the ride was enjoyable.

Travis on the ferry, with Volcan Concepcion on La Isla de Ometepe in the background.

Volcan Masaya

As I stated a few days ago, Mari and I took a day trip outside of Granada to the nearby town of Masaya to visit Volcan Masaya. I finally have time and internet to post some photos.

We hitched a ride from the front gate of the park all the way to the parking lot seen here on the cusp of the smoking crater. This active crater is actually a second volcano at the site named Volcan Nindiri, while Volcan Masaya sits dorment next door. The emitted smoke is acrid, and they recommend not staying nearby for more than 15 - 20 minutes in order to avoid the poisonous affects.

The sides of the crater illustrate the strata and shear faces that plummet straight down into the caldera.

Heres where the magic happens. Sauron's eye in the center of the bowl. They say if you come at night (on the night tour) that you can see the red glow of lava within. That would have been great to see, but Mari and I are shoestringing it and avoided paying for the guide and the tour, thereby quartering the cost of the trip.

This is actually Volcan Masaya, sitting just to the side of the active crater of Nindiri. From our left, this looked like a great place to climb and see the surrounding area.

Atop Masaya we had spectacular views of most of the local craters, all three lakes in the area, plus the giant volcanoes both north and south that sit looming in the distance. You can see Volcan Mombacha in the distance here.

24 de Enero 2011

Mari and I left Granada this morning, taking the bus south to Rivas where we caught a taxi headed to the ferries located in a town called San Jorge. The ferries head out to the Islas de Ometepe, two volcanoes that compose an island in the Lago de Nicaragua. The vocanos are Volcan Concepcion and Volcan Maderas. Both exquisite in size and beauty. Stepping off the ferry, we set foot in a town called Moyogalpa, the largest of the towns on the island, and the place we will be staying tonight.

The bus from Granada to Rivas cost us 48 Cordobas, the taxi cost us 45 Cordobas, and the Ferry was 120 Cordobas. Transportation costs put us just under $10 USD for the day. For the last several weeks Mari and I have been traveling on chicken buses, but didnt get the ¨real¨deal until our bus ride today, where people actually had chickens in hand. We shot a small video of a cute little boy and his chicken that I hope to somehow edit and post in the (near??) future.

As for the ferry ride, what a beautiful sight it was this afternoon as we whisked across the water heading towards the island and its two giant volcanoes looming in the distance, each shrouded in cloud cover near the top. The day was slightly windy and the water was quite choppy, making for a bumpy, swaying and rocking boat ride. But....still, nothing compared the boat ride I had a few years back crossing from Morocco to Spain where I thought the boat was actually going to break to pieces and we were all going to drown. This one just imparted the slight feeling of uneasiness that sets your mind thinking out possibilites.

So far... Moyogalpa appears to be a pleasant, small, tranquil island town. The water in the surrounding lake appears to be a muddy, brownish color, reminding Mari of the River Plate that seperates Argentina and Uruguay.

We walked around and checked out 5 places to stay and nothing jumps out as amazing, so I suppose we will just choose one that is on the nicer side and start making more decisions. I decided today we are becoming more picky in our decisions regarding where to stay. I think after traveling as long as I have through several countries, always holing up in hostels, I could create a pretty kick ass hostel that would offer and cater to the desires and whims of travelers. I know this to be true, because we are sometimes quite disappointed in the options of places we have to stay, that offer sometimes nothing spectacular. I wish I could open a hostel consulting firm, where I could help locals create hostels that cater to foreigners. That way travelers could support the local businesses, and it would be a win win situation. Typically, foreigners set up the better hostels, as they know what travelers want and need, thus circumventing the local businesses.

While in Granada we visited another Volcano, named Volcan Masaya. It was located roughly 20 Km outside of Granada, and after two short bus journeys, we were left at the entrance to the park. We paid our entrance and were planning on walking the 6 Km to the top, but after jokingly sticking out my thumb to hitchhike to the top, the car actually stopped and we hopped in for the the short drive to the summit. And what a site it was. A giant smoking crater puffing out throat scraping fumes. Luckily the wind was to our backs and we could enjoy the views without much hinderence. I hope to post some spectacular pics next time I swing by the internet cafe.

Ciao for now.

22 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are now in Granada. Located on the northwest corner of Lago de Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America. We arrived today in hopes of finding a cooler climate, as Leon was scorchingly hot, but its still quite warm here. Googling the temp right now I found this:

Right Now in Granada

Parcialmente nublado
91°F
Feels Like: 95°

Feels like 95 degrees is right. It is still hot out. Unfortunately we left behind our beautifully wonderful hostel in Leon for a nothing special here. We compared 5 different places upon our arrival and chose the least worst. Its called Hostel la Casita and costs us $10. But we are looking forward to the kitchen, as we have been without one eating out for weeks now. Its quite rewarding and nice to hit the markets and buy the wonderfully fresh produce and prepare a homecooked meal. Lack of kitchens is my biggest complaint about hostels and hotels in Honduras and Nicaragua so far.

Mari and I are trying to figure out what to do here in this new town. There are two volcanos nearby, one active one not. Plus the lake, and over 300 islands that can be visited with sights like monkeys and spanish forts and things like that. We have to rummage through some info and prices to find what we are looking to do.

Some things I wanted to relate about our journey so far.

Vendors. There are vendors everywhere. Of course there are stores, but there are street vendors selling items on racks and tables along the street. There are little carts that sell everything from prepared food, to cheese, to fruits and veggies, to underwear and bras. Plus there are central mercados (markets) in each town that run maze like full of anything and everything you could imagine. Toiletries, fruits and veggies, meat and fish stands that buzz with flies, old women on the floor selling razors and batteries - its quite a sight to behold. But what got me thinking about this today was our 2 leg bus trip today that took us from Leon to Granada. At each stop, vendors come to the bus, or board the bus and walk the aisles selling their goods. This ranges from soda and water in bottles, to soda and water in plastic bags, to peeled oranges, tacos, enchiladas, tomales, pasties and cookies, breads, chips and fried plantains. Any snacking food that can be bought and sold on the trip is bought, sold and eaten. They walk around the buses selling through the windows as well. Its a very central american thing so far. I was thinking the other day that Nicaragua lacks a certain identity and culture, compared to say Guatemala, yet when I really started to think about it they definately have a lot of the central american culture. Which made me think of reporting on this vendor idea.

On some of the long rides, you get a person in the front that does a 15 to 20 minute presentation on their product, orating to the trapped and present audience whiling away their time on the bus. These typically are medicinal products like throat lozenges, or pills of some sort, but the best one yet was a guy selling a little pamphlet informing the poor mountain people how to eat properly, and relating the evils of cheap candies and coca cola. It was a brilliant way of informing the local people on good eating habits as they have all the access in the world to fresh and vibrant local produce.

Well, I suppose I should help formulate a plan with Mari. Ciao!

T

21 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are still in Leon. We were planning to leave this morning heading south, but after tackling the volcano we needed an extra day to unwind.

Two nights ago we met at the tour place here in Leon called Quetzaltrekkers. They are a local non profit volunteer organization that arranges volcano tours to help fund local children projects. Once all the group had arrived (16 of us) we packed our bags for the trip with the provided sandwiches (for breakfast) along with several liter water bottles and all other personal belongings we´d brought. Once we were prepped we ate mac and cheese with garlic bread for dinner. Somewhere around 10:30 we crammed into two trucks and headed towards a nearby town situated near the base of the mountain. Arriving at the town, we set off on our hike at around 11:30 pm, walking stared off through dry farmer fields and cow and horse pastures between two mountains in order to get to the base of Talica. Even though it was almost midnight, it was really hot and moist outside. It must have been over 70 degrees or so, and with the slight incline, we were all sweating profusely. Mari and I were drinking a lot of water on the way up as our shirts were soaked through with persperation. We walked on dry, dusty paths that kicked up a lot of dust in the moonlight, with aid from hand held flashlights.

At around the two hour mark we took a long break near the tree line of the mountain and snacked on some food before heading off again. Here the trail started to incline a bit more, and was overrun with bushes and branches that pestered both legs and arms. In the dark we made our way up dusty sandy inclines, crawled over fallen trees, scrambled up rocky slants, and through open its of field that allowed the moonlight to once again light our path. Just about the time when everyone was really getting tired someone dared ask the question how much further? Our guide, an Australian named Connor, answered quite percisely that we were about 15 minutes away from the first crater, which we would dip down into and cross in order to reach the second, active crater. All roughly about an hour away, but most of it would be on level ground.

We entered the first crater somewhere around 4 am, and walked down into it to a small campsite where we made a fire to warm ourselves by and take a small respite. The looming crater of Talica was right in front of us, churning out a smouldering white smoke illuminated by the moonlight in the still dark night. We could have continued up the second crater at that time but Conner warned us not to go up too early for the sunrise as the winds are quite strong and cold above. We decided to wait a bit before heading up. Mari and I sat by the fire a bit to warm up, then laid down on the soft grass within the crater for a baby nap. An undetermined time later we were awoken to start the climb up the second crater.

Having left our bags below at the campsite, we forgot our flashlight and had a tougher time climbing the craters edge as it was strewn with sand and rocks and stones and boulders that rolled and moved underfoot, threating a serious ankle injury at any time in the darkness. Alas, we made it to the craters edge. Some brave souls neared the edge and gaped into the smoky bewildrment below. Mari crouched onher belly and put her face over the edge to peer inside. I decided to keep a safe distance of 5 or 10 feet just in case the edge decided to fall in on itself and disappear.

Connor was right, on top the wind was howling and cold. At first the inconvenience seemed do-able, but as we sat waiting for the sun to pop its head up over the horizon, cooling down from the climb, it seemed to get colder and colder. Here is a pic of Mari using a giant rock at the top as a windbreak in an attempt to escape the coat piercing wind.

As the sun was just about to rise, I snapped a few imaged of the crater right at the top, spewing out its white smoke that lingered and crept across the sky.


Then, in the distance the sun finally managed to lift itself into the sky. Illuminating the chain of valcanos stretching both north and south in the horizon.

After sunrise, we made our way back down the side of the crater and snapped this pic of the crater as the sun was just coming up.

Unfortunately for us, there was no lava to be seen, but it was still a great feeling to be standing on the edge of this ancient beast known to shape and alter our world. From the top I could also see both San Cristobal and Momotombo smoking in the distance. This chain is still active and keeping people on their toes.

Once the sun was up and everyone was together, we started the long haul back down the mountain. At 7 or 8 am the sun actually feels good, but anytime after that and the heat just keeps increasing. The journey down was hot and dry, but we did it in about 4 hours or so. At one stop on the way down someone happened upon a boa constrictor in the brush, constricting and eating a small rabbit. A little gruesome perhaps, but a great thing to take in while on a nature hike in Nicaragua.

Other interesting creatures: On the way up we saw a scorpion scurrying to find protection, and tons of leaf cutter ants carrying their specific sized leaf pieces in streams back to their colonies, which were gaping holes near the our path. The ants make clear lanes, free of plants or debris, little highways that run into the forest - quite easy to make out in the dense forest undergrowth. We heard the travel up to 2 Kms in search of a certain leaf that they cut to size, take into their dens, and pile in such a way to foster mold growth. This mold is what they feed on. Impressive little creatures. Roughly 3 million or so in the colony near our feet.

Anyway, once we returned from the mountain we were filthy, covered in dust and filth and sweaty and sticky. We returned to Leon, washed our clothes and shoes and ourselves, drank a few cold beers, then quickly crawled into bed for a midafternoon nap. After being awake 30+ hours while climbing up and down a large volcano had wiped us out. Our nap quickly escalated into a massive sleep fest that continued til this morning.

As for today, all of Leon was without power most of the day and just recently turned back on. I guess a few times a week, the power, water and internet just go out for a while. Its an unreliable place in terms of what we would consider basic needs back home. Next time your internet slows a bit and it gets you a little bit annoyed, just remember Mari and I are in locations where internet is still in its infant stages. There are tons of internet cafes, and its relatively cheap, but without power everything shuts down. I heard the other day that Nicaragua is roughly 40 years behind the 1st world, I guess I can see that when I see power outages and such like today. Very interesting infastructure set ups they have here.

It was scorchingly hot today, and mari and I were forced to drink luke warm beer. The gall of this place! LOL

Hope all is well back home

T

Leon Weather

Mon 91°F | 69°F Tue 91°F | 71°F Wed 91°F | 71°F Thu 91°F | 71°F

17 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are in Leon Nicaragua. We stayed last night at a restaurant/bar/hostel named Via Via. The guidebook said the bar was a bit noisy with rooms nearby so we almost skipped it entirely, but on a whim we checked it out and fell in love. Its a perfect space for a wonderful hostel. The restaurant and bar are on the street, and walking through the restaurant and well into the back are wonderfully cute rooms set around an inside courtyard full of plants. We sat last night eating dinner and drinking beer dreaming of opening such a place somewhere else in the world. The building is exquisite, the amount of space is amazing, the mix of internal and outdoor spaces mingle just right to set a perfect balance. They have a book exchange, and tons of information both locally and throughout Nicaragua for travelers such as us. As you can see, we are highly enjoying it.

Today we signed up for a night tour to a local active volcano named Telica. We meet around 9:30 pm for dinner, then set off for the mountain. Arriving around 11 or 12 pm, we start our way through farmers fields in the moonlight and once hitting the woods start our climb up the mountain. Its a 4 - 5 hour hike and we will arrive on the summit to see the sun rise over the area, with a view of many other volcanos set both north and south along the range. They need a minimum of 6 for it to move forward as a tour, but we are hopeful that 4 or more people will indeed sign up over the next 2 days. I read there are somewhere around 50 volcanos in Nicaragua, with 7 of them being active. Telica is one of the active ones. Hopefully, at night, from the rim we can look down to see lava and steam and all sorts of other volcano type things besides the eruption part. It was difficult to choose which one we wanted to climb as there are so many in the vicinity. But Cerro Negro seemed to easy and unchallenging, while Momotombo seemed a bit too challenging for Mari. We settled right in the middle. The overnight tour with meals, water, gear, park fee, transportation and guide is $40 a piece. Not too bad, but definately over our budget. But the good thing is we were slumming it and pushing forward pretty fast prior to this stop so we earned a good respite and deserve some good natural fun.

Last night we went to the local cinema (our first movie on the trip) and watched The Tourist, or El Turista as it is called here. The movie stars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp and started off as a romantic spy type thriller that quickly devolved into absolute crap. I like all movies, and I have to say this one was pretty bad. But, it was fun none the less to be in a small city with actual city attractions.

T

15 de Enero 2011

Man, Mari and I have been outta internet reach for quite a while and I dont quite know how to fill in all the details between then and now.

Mari and I are now in Esteli - Nicaragua. We crossed the border today from Honduras. We spent the night in Danli last night, a little town just near the southern border at a place called La Esperanza. We awoke, had breakfast and left Danli around ten am on a local bus headed to El Paraiso (15 Lemipira each), in El Paraiso we caught another local bus to Los Manos (13 Lempiras) where we crossed the border on foot, walking between a backup up of buses and trucks a half mile long. We had been told the border crossing would cost $7 USD, but actually turned out to be $12 USD each, plus another guy walked up and sold us a local $1 USD local fee ticket as well. A little more costly than we had anticipated, but still quite do-able.

At the border we cashed in our Lempiras for Cordobas (which I believe exchange at 22 for $1 USD)and hopped on the third local bus of the day headed to Ocotal (11 Cordoba each), where we finally hopped on our fourth and final bus of the day headed to Esteli for 25 Cordoba each. Arriving here in Esteli at around 2 pm, we looked at places to stay and chose a place called Hospedaje Sacuanjoche for 100 C each ($4.5 USD). Although not as nice as Hotel Nicarao, which was double the price, it is still quite clean and nice and a good place to hang out for the night before moving on.

Because we have been moving quite fast for the last couple weeks, we had planned on staying here in Esteli a couple nights, but now that we are here and realize that the cinema is no longer woking, and the local Italian restaurant doesnt exist anymore, the dazzle of the city faded a bit. We were looking forward to some good times of relaxation after several days of butt numbing bus rides, chilling out eating good food and watching some Hollywood hits at the cinema, but with our dreams crushed we have decided to leave first thing in the morning. At 6:45 am there is an express shuttle to Leon we are planning to take. Leon is right off the coast, and I am sure we are headed to better, brigher, warmer weather.

The beer here is called Toña. Another C grade. I cant say that any beer along my travels in both South and Central America has blown my mind, all I can say is that they are all light, easy to drink Lagers that are delicious in the right time and place. Dont get me wrong, I have a personal heirarchy of beers, and given an unlimited number of choices I may never drink this beer. But, I will never talk bad about beer. I do wish I could have a Mannys though. A little travel keg would really do the trick. I wish Mannys made a water purifier that output Mannys beer. That would be amazing, anyway, I digress.

Right off the bat I can tell Nicaragua is a bit different than Honduras. Honduras was mountainous, with mountains in the foreground, the center, and the distance. Mountain upon mountain, and clouds, and green forests and beautiful landscapes. Already, the mountains have disappeared and we are surrounded by little hills. And, in Honduras, there are armored guards with shotguns, military police with machine guns, and local cops with machine guns patrolling everywhere. Here, so far, I have only seen armed guards at the banks. I dont know if the lack of machine guns should make me feel safer or more in danger? Guess we will see.

Working backwards:

Before leaving Honduras, Mari and I spent two nights at Lake Yojoa, at a place called D and D Brewery. Check this out from the book: ¨Oregonian brewmaster Robert Dale set up this highly original and attractive place to stay with lush gardens and an on site brewery that produces some of Honduras best beers. The good outdoor restaurant has homemade coffee and sodas. Oh, and you dont have to close your mouth when you shower - the running water is purified here, a legacy of the brewing process.¨ Sounds pretty cool right? Well, all in all it was not so cool. It proceeded to rain like crazy at the lake the entire time we were there. Not just Seattle drizzle, but like an all out war - sky versus ground. That wouldnt have been so bad if we could have just stayed indoors and drank beer and relaxed a bit, but unfortunately Mari and I both had food poisoning from the town before. So we laid there for two days, eating soup and smoothies, unable to partake in the quality ale. Fortunately the weather was horrible so we didnt miss out on a spectacular time, but it would have been nice to rejoice in some hometown revelry of brewpub ales.

I personally laid half comatose, nodding in and out to the thunderous sound of rain striking against the tin roof above my head, echoing through the room. If you didnt get the point, it was a white noise of sound above all else, loud. Normally, I am a light sleeper and noise like this would have left me wanting of sleep. But due to my sickness, the ceaseless rhythem helped lure me away from the reality of my feverish body. The sound left nothing to the imagination of how wet we would have been without a roof over our heads, and makes me ponder back to the 1500´s when the spanish crown was conquering this jungle land. Spanish soldiers in full military regalia marching through these lands, enduring storm after storm in this mountainous terrain. Unbearable! After two days in that spot, and learning that the rain - although unusually heavy - was quite normal, we decided to hightail it out of the mountains and back to a more temperate climate. Having seen nothing more than Lake Yojoa along the side of the road, we left.

Before the lake we stayed in Gracias for two nights. Gracias is a small, quiet, hot mountain town. I like these little places out of the way, but Mari got bored quickly. We only stayed there the second night because that was the day her food poisoning hit. We stayed there at a place called Finca Bavaria, a coffee plantation run by an exceptionally honest and friendly old Hondureño named Hernandez. He was a very pleasant and understanding and easy going man.

Its interesting to log into Facebook and see photos of Mari and I from people we have met along the way. Hope some of you have the possibility to see those photos, cause yet again I have nothing to show on this post.

Ciao

T

I just made a google map of our trip through Honduras, hopefully it works.

View Honduras in a larger map

09 de Enero 2011

I was chatting with my mom last night and she was telling me she loves the blog, but misses the pictures that should accompany the posts. I highly agree, but for example right now, I am posting from Mari's I-touch. Although there are computers at some of the places we stay, it's more typical that the hostels and hotels have Wi-fi and not communal computers for guest use. Thus, it's impossible for me to add photos with the post.

Even when I have a computer, it's still difficult cause my camera takes wall size photos, much much much too large for the blog. Thus it's a thirty minute endeavor to pick and sort photos, upload them, resize them, then link them to the blog. If it were easier, I would add way more. So please excuse the photo absences when they occur.

This morning Mari and I visited the Copan ruins. I am glad we went. Sometimes I get the feeling from others that all ruins look alike, and that that after you've seen a few they are not all worth the visit. But today I found the Copan ruins just interesting as the rest. I have found that the five we have visited (Monte Alban, Pelenque, Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copan) have all differed and have been interesting in their own unique way. The Copan ruins are renown for having the best sculpture of all the ancient cities - and I can see why. The stellas are impressive free standing sculptures that show great skill. The temples are not huge, but in it's hey day it is suggested the city had as many as 20,000 inhabitants. One thing I thought was great about today's ruins is that at some points along the way they have artist interpretations of what the city may have looked like in it prime. And it looked mighty. Much different than the crumbling mess of modern times.

Anyway, after the tour Mari and I returned to the Hotel Marjenny, packed our things, grabbed a quick lunch of fresh bananas and chicken empanadas, and then caught a bus outta town. We took a local shuttle from Copan to La Entrada, then transferred to a bus headed south to Santa Rosa de Copan. The trip took us about three hours and we traveled with the locals, which usually means packing 40 people into a 20 passenger shuttle van. It's an interesting thing taking the local buses in Central America. Remembering back to the bus trip we took from Antigua to San Pedro (actually a bus to Panajachel, then a boat to San Pedro) but anyways, that bus ride was something. At one point someone took note that we had twelve people in 3 two person seats. If there's an edge, Enoch space for a quarter cheek, or even a half cheek, someone will squish you over and sit, sometimes even when there are free seats near the back. Space requirements are thrown out the window for a mother of two who squeezes in with her baby and small child. It's hilarious and interesting at the same time.

Tomorrow I believe we will head a little south (47 Km) to a little town named Gracias. It sounds interesting as a small mountain town.

It's Sunday evening here in Santa Rosa, and most stores are closed. We are going to make soup for dinner, but ran out for a quick snack of pastelito de harina, pastelitos de maize, and one chalupa. They were all absolutely delicious and cost less than $3. The prepared street food here in Honduras is the cheapest we have found along our journey. Fantastically delicious and cost effective.

T

08 de Enero 2011

Want to wish my brother Tom a happy birthday back home in Bellingham, WA.

T

07 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are now in Honduras. After much deliberation and arguing while reading our guidebook and scanning our bedspread size map of central america, we finally came to the conclusion to head east out of Guatemala and into Honduras. We had many wonderful options as to the direction and type of activities we wanted to persue, so it was a difficult 2 day decision making process.

Thus......we are now in the city of Copan, 1 Km away from the Copan ruins. We took the bus out of Antigua at 1 pm on what we thought would be a five and a half hour shuttle ride, which quickly escalated into a seven hour plus shuttle ride. Rule number one about central america, never trust an estimated word of mouth time schedule from the people selling you tickets. Always try and find a traveler who has actually made the trip.

Rule number two, never trust the prices given to you in the travel agencies sprinkled around town. We have come to find that there is usually one principle agency, and many more secondary agencies. These secondary agencies inflate costs to make a profit. After checking prices today for our voyage, prices fluctuated from $8 USD to $20 USD. Outrageous. Its difficult to take some of these places seriously when you look straight in their eyes and know they are ripping you off. Anyway, we paid 68 Quetzales ($8 each) for our long voyage. If you find yourself in this area, I recommend using Plus Travel Agency.

http://www.plustravelguate.com/

They have low, affordable prices - and they are not trying to rip you off. Their ad says it straight up - Dont Pay More. And I have to agree. There are several locations in both Antigua and Copan, and most likely other cities as well.

Okay, now onto the actual ride. Our driver was sorta insane. There were 12 of us inside, where 4 of those were a father, mother and two young children - while the rest of us were normal traveling personas. The driver kept passing cars on curves, hills, and any other location deemed impossible as a passing lane. But to his credit, it was happening all around us. When a car trying to pass finds itself face to face with an oncoming vehicle, plenty of frantic horn honking gets them back into the lane in the knick of time. Plus, around 6 pm the sun sets. This makes for an unusually frieghtening time. Curvy roads without street lamps in the dense mountains and high speeds. Its jaw numbing. Mari and I have sworn to never travel after dark again.

When arriving to a location I used to say LLegamos (we have arrived), but lately due to all our death defying traveling I have taken to saying Vivimos (we´re alive).

Okay, now its time to refer back home. What is going on in Seattle? Mari and I have both received news reporting pregnancies back home during our absence. Anyways.... congratulations to Michael and Olivia for their future offspring, and we would like to extend this same congratulations to Louisa and Jed as well. We cant wait to see these beautiful mixtures in baby form in the near future.

As for Copan, the guidebook really lead us astray. We checked out the suggested hostel here - Hostal en la Manzana Verde - and were highly disappointed. Althought the structure was nice, with a beautiful kitchen, the woman working the shift was rude and shifty. Anyways, we found a wonderful place called Hotel Mar Jenny, or perhaps Marjenny. I have seen it both ways. Private rooms, internet, hot shower - the works. And for cheap. We paid 190 Honduran Lempiras for our room. There are roughly 19 Lempiras in 1 USD, so its about $10 bucks. Not too bad.

Its now 10 PM. Mari started to get a headache during the trip so she is in the room trying to sleep. I just walked down to the town center and bought some local beer named Salva Vida. Hmmmm, just googled it, and although it got a C grade on the beer advocate, it tastes mighty fine to me.

Although its sad to cut the Guatemalan tour short, its nice to be in the 5th country of this trip so far. I hope Honduras is as wonderful as all the other places we have visited.

T

05 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are back in Antigua again after spending the last 3 night in San Pedro La Laguna on the shore of Lake Atitlan in southwestern Guatemala.

We stayed in San Pedro (left side) in a large group once again, but as of this morning Mari and I were the first to break the fellowship as we headed east across Guatemala back to Antigua on our way towards Honduras or El Salvador. Lake Atitlan is very large, and pretty interesting. If you have time to read up on it, I placed a link in the opening of this post.

Yesterday we took a bus up the mountain to climb El Nariz (the nose).

The bus we took is an old american school bus, colorfully painted, and is referred to here as a chicken bus.

The ride up the mountain had us all in fright, as the incline of the road was quite steep and the bus moaned and groaned and slowly climbed its way up to the top as we all crossed fingers and hoped we would make it alive. The road, once nice, was recently destroyed from bad flooding, so we were bouncing and banging all over the road. And at some points along the path the road was reduced to half the normal width as the outer part had fallen off edge of the cliff. It was a good, fun filled ride.

The hike was great and offered beautiful panaramas of the lake and a birds eye view to many of the towns nestled below. It was nice to get up into the lush green forests on the mountains and take in the majesticness of the area.

After returning down the slope from the mountain and fearing for our lives onboard the decrepit old chicken bus heading steaply downhill - Mari, Alex and I decided to walk the hour long road back down to San Pablo. From San Pablo we jumped in a tuk tuk

and headed to the next town over - San Marcos - to meet up with the rest of the gang for some fun at the lake. San Marcos boasts a platform 25 - 30 feet in the air, from which, if one has enough courage you can run and jump into the water below. As I have a natural born fear of heights I opted out on that one, but enjoyed seeing the others build up courage and take the leap. I opted for the 6 foot high (or so) rope swing from the waters edge. The sun was warm and the water was cool.

Some of the others were staying at San Pedro a while longer, and a few others were heading further west. Mari and I decided to start our trek back west so we can start a plan on exiting Guatemala. Tonight, we will make some food and devise a plan.

T

January 1st 2011

New Years Day has finally arrived. We had a tremendous dinner last night. 14 of us banded together to cook a feast. Nine of us are staying here in the Antigua Hotel, and 4 others traveled from their hostels to our hotel to spend the evening with us. Broken down by country, we had a global attendence. Denmark won with 4 people in attendence, while we also had 3 from Germany, 3 from Holland, 1 from Switzerland, 1 from Spain, 1 from Uruguay (Mari), and 1 from the USA (Me).

I cooked a veggie soup. I started by pressure cooking some black beans, then added garlic, onion, red and green pepper, leek, potato, carrot, zuchini, broccoli , plus some rice and spices. The local market has tons and tons of fresh fruits and veggies. This whole soup set us back maybe 4 or 5 bucks.

If you build it, they will come. We gathered and ate on the roof top terrace of the hotel. It was a beautiful night, not hot but not too cold.

Bread, veggie soup, guacamole, chips, spanish style tortilla, 2 types of pasta salad, salsa, diced tomatoes, rum and cokes, beer, wine, and rum punch. I think we had all the bases covered.

Mari and Alex (from Spain). I watched him carefully while he cooked the spanish tortilla so I could steal a few of his secrets. I think I have much to learn.

After dinner, we headed to the Parque Central to watch the fireworks and see the people gather. All day long there were festivities in the park - bands playing, clowns, jugglers, men in costume on stilts. They really throw a bash. The fireworks were good, but nothing like the 4th of July back home. This was amateur style, but still fabulous. Afterwards, the entire park was swathed in a sea of fireworks smoke that lent an air of mystery to the night.

Nice to have you here 2011. Hope you stick around for a while.