Central America Wrap-up

There was talk about leaving Panana and heading to a rain forest in Costa Rica for my remaining few days. This was a fun idea but it would mean spending several more hours in transit, which felt wasteful of my precious time remaining in Central America. We were really enjoying the place we were already at so I decided that my remaining time was best spent by continuing our stay in Bocus Del Toro.

We looked into renting a boat but weren't able to because of all the random unmarked shoals in the area. One day I inquired at a tourism office about joining a boat tour around the islands. They said the tours were done for the day but I could go the next day. Unfortunately I had to begin my journey home the next morning, so this was not an option. But I didn't give up there; after some negotiation I embarked on a personal island tour with one of the local boat drivers, and the kicker was he let me drive his boat the whole time!

We drove all around a large collection of islands with the owner guiding me around shoals and through narrow passages. We made a little stop at his house to drop off groceries to his family, and we chatted about life on the island. On the way back we passed some locals who asked if they could get a ride. The driver asked me if it was okay and of course I was fine with it, so they hopped in and I drove us all back to the main island. It was an exciting and random experience driving this small boat through the big waves in the ocean; I felt privileged that the driver allowed me to do this!

My last night in Bocus was a party night at our hostel. I started the night by welcoming people at the taxi boat landing of our hostel. I saw one fairly large boat pull in with a bunch of people and I told the driver he had a nice boat. He invited to come along for his next pickup and before I knew it I was driving his boat! After riding along for 3 or 4 pickups, which included walking into hostels and recruiting people for the party, I decided it was time to join the party myself. The next morning I hopped on an early morning ferry back to the mainland, caught a bus back to San Jose, and flew home the next morning. One great month in Central America!

Bocus Del Toro

We learned of a magical sounding place in Panama that's composed of various sized islands; easily accessed by cheap and abundantly available water taxis. The place is called Bocus Del Toro and was a definite must see for both Tara and I. We heard about a hostel in the area that has a diving board, trampoline and swings into the ocean, so this quickly won our vote for where to stay. The entire hostel sits on pillars above the ocean, just off shore from one of the islands. There is also a "pool" here, which is simply a big area that's cut out of the deck and leads into the ocean. When we first arrived it was pretty much sensory overload for me...I've literally had dreams of places like this where boats are the main form of transportation. I spent a good amount of time just laying in a hammock taking it all in.

On the first night we learned a new card game from a Belgium guy who claimed that this game is the reason that playing cards were invented. I thought it was a pretty enjoyable game and has some similarities to Euchre. I think my Dad would approve of this game, along with the countless other enthusiastic Euchre players back home!

One day we rented kayaks and explored two other islands in the area. We paddled through some pretty big waves and even caught a little bit of a surf at one point in the journey. Other than that I've spent my time looking at boats, reading my Antarctica book, chatting with other travelers and playing on the ocean jungle gym. We have done a bit of exploring on the main island but weren't going over there at night because we heard about a lot of people getting mugged while wondering the streets at night over there.

Last night, however, we heard about a party taking place at a hostel/bar on the main island and we were able to get a water taxi directly to the place...so a big group of us headed over there and ended up having an amazing time. I couldn't have asked for a better mix of music, and of course good music + fun people = lots of dancing!

We were planning on leaving this morning but didn't feel ready to leave this place, so we didn't.

To me traveling is about the quality of the time I spend at each place...even if that means I'm going to see one less place on this trip. That's why we didn't leave here this morning, and that's why we may not even leave tomorrow morning. That's the life of traveling with no fixed itinerary, and to me it's the best way to go!

Puerto Veijo Continues

We were having such a great time at Rockin J's that we ended up staying for 5 nights. It's hard to go wrong with a beach-front hostel on the Caribbean coast for less than $6 per night! We reconnected with a fair bit of travelers there that we had met previously in places like Granada. Everyone was collectively contributing to a great time so no one really wanted to leave.

One day we were wondering around in a group of seven...a guy from Montreal showed us a really cool lookout that he had found and it was a great day for it. The waves were crashing in hard against the rocks and the view along the coast was fantastic. Afterwords we walked along the beach for a while and eventually decided on a good spot to jump in the ocean. The waves this day were the biggest they had been yet.

I was really enjoying the waves and felt like I was getting a good workout just keeping myself afloat...then a couple waves carried me pretty far and I started looking around at other people to get a feel for how intense the situation was getting. Suddenly I saw that one of the French girls was asking for help from the American guy nearby and the other French girl was out deeper and being helped by the German guy. I saw Tara managing to swim through the rip tide - one of many advantages to growing up on the island! Then I looked back at the German guy and saw he was asking for help with the French girl because he was able to keep her afloat but couldn't get her in past the rip tide. So I grabbed her other arm and we all made it to shore safely. Tara cheered us all for the human chain of life.

That night we celebrated life by partying the night away at Rockin J's. Celebrating life with good people and good times is the basis of how we spent the next couple days. I went out on the town a couple times and met some pretty interesting ex-pats. Tara did some cool tile art and I did some tiling of my own on the other side of the pillar. Obviously it's clear who the artist is...but most people I asked were at least able to figure out what my drawing was so that was enough to make me happy with it! I'll post a picture when I get a chance so you can try to figure out what it is as well.

Our gang of friends started dispersing from Rockin J's and we eventually decided it was our time to move on as well. This experience was a strong reminder of how traveling is as much about the people as it is the places. It's a definitely a bizarre feeling at times because people who we never even knew a couple weeks ago suddenly feel like our best friends and then just as quickly as we met it's time to say goodbye. Now it's on to new people and new places - as the song I've been singing goes - PAAANNNAMA! PAAANNNHAMA HA HA HA HAHA. PANAMA!

Puerto Viejo

We arrived in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica two days ago. Didn't have a reservation anywhere but when we got off the bus we chatted to a guy who was on his way to a place called Rockin J's. We had already heard good things about the place so we shared a cab there with the guy. It is nuts here...in a great way! Everywhere is covered in tile art, all sorts of drawings made out of various sizes of broken up tile. After 8 years in the works, the tile art is still a work in progress. Tara's already been chatting to the owner about doing some tile art on a pillar near our hammocks.

We headed for the ocean almost immediately after checking in. The waves have been huge; I've spent a good chunk of time body surfing! Yesterday we rented bikes and went into town to buy some groceries. After putting together some sandwiches we took the bikes 6 or 8 KM to a nice beach. It started raining while we were there but it was good timing because we were ready to swim. In the water I could barely tell it was raining because the waves were so great!

The rain braked for a bit so we went ashore and ate our lunch. The rain picked back up and we jumped back in...however this time the rain continued for quite a while. After tiring ourselves out in the waves we decided to begin the bike ride back. It was warm enough that it wasn't a bad ride in the rain. On our way back Tara recognized some people who were waiting out the rain in a cafe, so we stopped in and chatted with them. Some of them had just come from Bocus, Panama - where we're headed next - so they told us some fun and useful information.


The rain continued through the night and has carried on today - pouring down really hard at times! It is the end of the rainy season here so we can't be too surprised or disappointed about it. I spent most of the morning reading up on Antarctica...the main focus of my spare time during this trip. Tara found me around 2 and asked me if I wanted to go along swimming with the people she spent the morning with...of course I was up for our daily swim! The waves were so huge that a lifeguard came by and told us it was time to get out of the water.

At the moment of writing this, Rockin J himself has been promoting his $1 all you can drink Jungle Juice...literally just before I wrote those words I had to ask, ''J, what do you call this drink?'' because I've been enjoying it but forgot the name as I was typing this. He's had some good lines in the past hour. Examples include, ''You won't find a better deal anywhere, seriously!!' and, ''I literally loose money all the time by doing things like this!'' And that brings me to where I am right now, Beunos Noches amigos!

Nicaragua Conclusion

In class on Thursday we asked our instructor how to find the hot springs. He drew us a map and after class we went exploring. When we got to the place marked on the map there were no obvious hot springs. Luckily a local man was there to help up us out. I walked around in the area he pointed to but didn't feel any hot water. Since I couldn't understand what he was saying, he stepped into the water and scraped away some sand with his hands in shallow water, revealing some hot water underneath. No wonder we weren't able to find the hot springs during our kayak ride the other day - you have to actually dig for them! So we dug away, revealing warm water and in some cases burning hot water. Even ten feet off shore I was able to dig down into the bottom and hit warm water. Not exactly what I had imagined for the hot springs, but still pretty cool.

We were told that our activity on Friday was to go along with the manager of the Spanish school on a roadtrip to Leon to watch a graduation ceremony. Seemed a bit strange to drive 2 hours to watch a graduation...especially when we found out that it meant classes were completely cancelled for the day on what was supposed to be our last day of school. But we went along with it because we did want to see Leon and the situation sort of reminded me of when I was in elementary school...of course I'd rather go on a field trip than have classes for the day!

When we got there it ended up being a kindergarten graduation which started really confusing us because we drove 2 hours just to see it. And then suddenly the guy who drove us there stepped up to the podium and was the translator for the ceremony...and the English speaking people whose words he was translating were his parents. Turned out his parents are missionaries who organized building this school for poor families in the area. Sort of a random situation to find ourselves in, but it ended up being an interesting insight into some of the good things that people are doing to help out unwealthy families in other parts of the world. Still, quite random...especially since the guy didn't really mention any of this to us on our way to the ceremony...maybe he was just being modest. After the ceremony we checked out Leon, had some lunch in the main square of the city, and headed back to the school.

That night was our last night at the nature reserve so I insisted that we go for one last dip in the lake before dinner. After dinner we played some euchre, said our goodbyes (to people and pets) and headed to bed. We were up at 5am the next morning to begin the journey back to San Jose, a way point to where we're headed next - the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica!

Spanish Lessons Begin

We spent 2 nights in Granada, a nice old colonial city with lots of historic buildings. We stayed at a very social hostel, met lots of great people, and did a bunch of exploring.

Next on the agenda was finding a school to take Spanish lessons at. We didn´t have lots of criteria; only that the school had some good reviews, was in a decent location, and offered accommodation with a host family; preferably a family with a dog. We were pretty set on Nicaragua because we like the locals (Nicas), we feel very safe and comfortable here, and everything is a decent price.

After searching around and calling a few places, we decided on a place near Granada that is situated on the Apoyo Nature Reserve. This won our pick because it´s the only not-for-profit language school in Nicaragua, it´s the oldest in the country, and the beautiful location includes a nice big lake in the creator of an inactive volcano. The school is also a biological research station whose projects attract volunteers from all over the world.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon, had some lunch, and went for a swim. The lake is so clean and its temperature is just right. The school has two dogs, Simba and Kooko. Our host family has at least 4 dogs, including a very young puppy, as well as some goats. We are staying with one of the cook´s families about 200 metres from the school. There´s tons of people in and around the house at all times which keeps it interesting.

The first night we played cards with some of the volunteers here. I asked that we play anything but A-hole, so a Canadian girl introduced us to a combination of A-hole and Poker which was pretty fun. We headed to bed pretty early (about 9:45) to find that everyone in our house had gone to bed already. We were greeted by every dog barking away at us and a goat standing in front of us peeing. Had a good laugh at that.

The next morning I was up good and early for school - the first time I had to get up for school in almost 2 years! Class runs from 8am to 12:30 and takes place under a tree in the yard, with one professor teaching both Tara & I. After class on Monday our teacher took us out for a nature walk around the area. On Tuesday we took out kayaks after class in search of some hot springs we´ve heard about. We never found them but got some good exercise and enjoyed the view during our 3 hour paddle (at a pretty relaxed pace).

That evening we were invited by our host family and their neighbours to join in on making a traditional Nica dish. This involved roasting corn seeds on a pot over the fire and later mixing them with cocoa beans to make a festive drink that I`m hoping we`ll eventually get to taste. After this we played with the goats for a while...one of them really likes pushing us around with his horns and nibbling on any exposed skin...I´m not sure if that´s his way of showing friendship or trying to get us away from his family, but nonetheless it was very entertaining.

We played a couple rounds of cards with our host sister and learned about her family. She has 4 kids, her sister (who was helping me play the card game) also has 4 kids, and in total there are 8 siblings. We didn´t get to actually finding out how many of the eight siblings live in the house, but it certainly starts to explain why there are so many people around at all times. Despite the chaos of all the adults, children, babies, dogs and goats, our host family seems very happy and loving and they have kindly welcomed us into their house.

After the card game we went back outside and played with the goats some more, took some pictures (which will be posted when I get a better connection) and headed to bed. Now it´s back to class...I`m hoping we´ll find those hot springs this afternoon.

Ometepe

Our next destination was Ometepe, an island with two volcanoes located on Lake Nicaragua - the largest freshwater lake in Central America. It was beautiful.

Arriving at Ometepe, i.e. Volcanoe Island, Nicaragua

We didn´t have any plans for where to stay, however on the ferry ride over we were talking to a guy who planned to stay at a hostal that had a tame deer roaming the ground. This was enough info for us to make a decision to stay there. We didn´t see the deer right away because it had lots of grounds to hide out in. My first encounter was while I was in a hammok reading, the deer came up and started licking my arm. Tara missed out on this encounter, and was so excited to see the deer that she didn´t believe me when I told her I saw it. The next morning at breakfast we were talking about the day´s plan and all of a sudden Tara´s eyes lit up, ¨The Deer!¨

That afternoon we rented bikes and explored a bit more of the island, finding an intersting, partially submerged playground. The local kids didn´t care that their playground was under water, they were perfectly happy swinging from the tree branches into the water.

That night we decided we couldn´t go to a volcanoe island without climbing a volcanoe, so we talked to a local guide working at our hostel and signed up to climb the larger volcanoe (Concepción Volcanoe). Afterwords, we walked out our hostel and looked at the intimidating volcanoe...1600 metres high

We decided to take it easy the next day and climb the volcanoe the day after, so we had a free day to do whatever we pleased. I was reading in the backyard when Tara came up and said, ¨Bus leaves in 5 minutes, you in?¨Of course I was. The plan was to go to a waterfall, but we were on a local bus where no one spoke English and unfortunately we don´t speak any Spanish...yet. So we ended up at a Mineral Lake. It wasn´t the waterfall we planned to go to, but it wasn´t a complete mission failure because there was still a small waterfall connecting the two parts of the lake. And of course it was a beautiful place to kick back for the day.

The next morning we were up at 4:30am, had some breakfast, and headed for the volcano. It was a cloudy morning so we weren´t able to actually look up at the volcano as we were climbing it, which probably was a good thing because it was a pretty long way to the top! The first 1000 m was mostly walking through trees, where our guide told us lots of survival info about which plants we could eat, which plants could kill us, which plants could calm arthritus, etc...

The last 600m was loose rock, which made for tricky ascending, and, as we later found out, even trickier descending.

Looking into the core of the volcanoe - not quite as I imagined it would be, but nonetheless interesting to see.

The treehouse building volunteer plan didn´t work out this time, but we left Ometepe with some great memories!