Bus-ferry-taxi-immigration-taxi-bus-bus-bus-ferry-bus

As I am pretty far behind, in order to kind of catch up I have also taken this entry from Laura´s blog.

Bus-ferry-taxi-immigration-taxi-bus-bus-bus-ferry-bus. That was the 16-hour mess we endured to get from Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua, to Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.  We woke up bright and early at 4:30am to catch the bus to a ferry to a taxi to the border.  Most of our border crossings have been quick and painless, but the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border is by FAR the biggest cluster-f*ck ever  (excuse my french).  Not only were the lines around the block and took forever, but there is about a full kilometer of neutral zone between the two that you have to walk.  Thats not fun when you have a 20 kilo bag on your back, let me tell you.  It took way longer than necessary and after suffering through that we still had a taxi ride, 4 different buses, and a ferry to take to get to our end destination.

the line for customs at the Costa Rica border - you can't really tell but it goes around the corner

The best part of the day was when we finally arrived via ferry, we needed to take one more 2-hour bus to get to Santa Teresa.  We dropped our bags off at the bus and then asked them (in Spanish) if we would have enough time to go to the bathroom before the bus left.  They told us we would, no problem, and we ran off to go quickly before the long bus ride.  On our way out, we were all joking at how funny it would be if the bus had left without us while we were in the bathroom.  The joking quickly became a reality when the bus was NOWHERE to be seen and had left us WITH all of our bags in the bus!!  Some guys that we had met on the boat saw this happen and luckily had a car, so all 9 of us piled into their car and took off chasing the bus honking and flashing our lights trying to get the bus to pull over.  It was honestly one of the most hilarious moments of my life.  Finally after cutting off the bus, the driver pulled over and allowed us on.  When we asked him what the hell happened and WHY he left us, he just said “sorry” so nonchalantly…gotta love Central America.

The good news is that all of that fiasco was worth it.  Santa Teresa is beautiful and has the most amazing beaches!

Since I was injured and couldn’t go into the water, Chloe and I bought paddleball to play on the beach.  We didn’t get too far into the game before one of the local dogs joined in and it became more like monkey-in-the-middle with the dog.  Every time we would mess up, the dog would run, grab the ball and then want to play with us.  So we would spend the next 5 minutes chasing the dog trying to get the ball back before starting paddleball again.  It was a futile effort as the dog won most of the time, and the majority of our paddleball game was spent chasing Diva (that was the name we gave her, because I swear we saw her in a different collar earlier in the day).  Turns out there were two dogs who were sisters.

We spent 3 nights and 2 days in Santa Teresa before heading to our next destination of Monteverde – the zip lining capital of Costa Rica!! (Okay I don’t know if that’s true or not, I just made it up).

War Wounds

This entry was taken from Laura´s blog.

While in Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua, we decided to explore the island via motorbike.  Chloe opted out of the motorbike excursion, thinking it might be too dangerous, and instead hiked the volcano.  Seeing as how I have ridden them all around Thailand and Greece, I thought nothing of it and Gail, Vandria, and I went ahead and arranged for 3 motorbikes to be delivered to our hostel the following morning.  The day started off on the wrong foot when they showed up with legit dirt bikes, aka motorcycles.  I can barely use a manual transmission car so I wasnt about to try to figure out the clutch-and-shift situation on a motorcycle.  We should have taken that as a sign – a.k.a. the roads are too rough for scooters – but instead we had the guys that delivered them drive us the hour-ride back to their office on the back of the motorcycles.  Clutching on to the nice Nicaraguan men as we sped through villages, passing farms and herd of cows…it was certainly an experience.  Along the way, I was chatting with my driver, who happened to be the shop owner and we made a little bet.  If I DONT crash the bike, he owes me a beer, but if I DO crash it, then I will owe him a beer.  I had never had problems before so I thought that this was an easy beer to win.

Once we arrived in town, we got our scooters (since they CLEARLY don’t call them motorbikes in Nicaragua), a map of the island, and took off to explore.

exploring on our motor bikes

All was going great until we turned off onto a rocky, dirt road looking for the beach.  First of all, before I go any further, I would like to explain that this a) wasnt even a real beach, as we were on an island in a lake, and b) that it wasnt even the correct road to the beach in the first place.  Massive fail.  Regardless, we didn’t know all of this yet, and were maneuvering around the rocks on our vespas.  This is when I ate it.  I was actually being very cautious and driving relatively slowly when I saw a patch of rocks in the road up ahead.  I decided to avoid said rocks and go up on a small ledge around the rocks, when my bike skidded out from under me, went sliding INTO the rocks and I was left sliding down the road as well.  Not ideal.

The first thing that came into my mind once I stopped sliding on the gravel was:  Oh man!  Now I have to buy this guy a beer!  Thats when a car came by to help out, picked up my bike and I saw the damage….then I thought:  Oh man!  This is going to be expensive!!  The gas was leaking, a rock was stuck INTO the front and side of the bike, and there were scratches everywhere.  I was still in shock and hadn’t yet noticed the extent of my injuries.  The men helping us did, however, and offered to take me to the hospital.  I thought that seemed a bit unnecessary, so instead they offered to take us all down the road to the hotel they manage and give a place to clean my wounds.  I am so thankful for how helpful they were as they let us use their lobby bathroom, clean towels, and offered me money to buy bandages.

When you fall off a horse motorbike, you’re meant to tough it out and get right back on, right? Right.  So that’s what I did and the rest of the day was so much fun.

scraped up and ready to ride again

We went to the “beach,”  visited the cold springs, rode up to a lookout point to view both volcanos on the island…it was really incredible and DESPITE the injury, I had a lot of fun.

When we returned the bike it was a lot less fun since I had to pay $190 in damages to the bike.  Thats a LOT of money when youre on a Central American budget, let me tell you.

Side note:  I wasnt the only one fell.  On the way back to our hostel, Vandria also had some issues.  She was stuck trying to make it up a slight hill over a rock when her bike wouldn’t go anymore.  Thinking it was a bicycle, she decided to walk it up the hill, but when the bike was too heavy she decided to rev it a bit.  And then a bit more…while still OFF the bike.  Gail and I were watching this from afar thinking “does she know that bike is going to fly away from her???”  She did not, and that’s exactly what happened.  Her bike jolted forward leaving her to chase along side of it grasping for the brakes.  It fell, she fell.  It was classic.  She scraped her knee a bit, but the bike remained intact.

So, the moral of the story…….DO NOT ride scooters off of paved roads. I wish the story ended there….with all of the traveling and humidity, the war wound on my leg got really infected and after 3 days, I thought I should go to a pharmacy to get it checked out.  They took one look at it, gasped, and sent me to the medical clinic.  The doctor had to remove all of the skin that had tried to heal and after about 30 minutes of total agony, I was sent home with a clean leg, antibiotics, and a $150 medical bill.

The injury pre-infection. (I think?) I put this anti-bacterial powder on it to help it scab in the humididty.

At the medical clinic trying to look happy... Vandria let me squeeze her hand really hard

Three weekends in a row

While down here I got to spend three weekends in a row with my friend Bryan. He frist came and met us in Antigua, then I flew to Managua a day before the other girls and finally in Gigante. On Friday morning Bryan, Eliza and Joe picked us up in Granada to head to a really remote beach called Gigante.

The day started off hilariously (is that a word?) Not having booked a place in Granada, we decided to choose a "hostel" that was offered to us as we got off the bus. It was super cheap for private rooms and after all this traveling a room is a room. Well our hostel was in the middle of a market - which made for quite a mess when Joe decided to drive his hug truck through it to pick up our bags. People were literally picking up their goods fromtheir stalls on the floor to avoid being hit. Joe is quite the trooper because if it were me I would have probally had a heart attack!

 Bryan Chloe and I found it quite funny as we were in the bed of the truck. After making it out of the city Bryan and I stayed in the back and enjoyed the beautiful peaceful scenery. That was until we hut the bumpy dirt road to the beach town.

 

Once we got there we understood why Bryan was so insistent we came. It was absolutely beautiful! We spent 2 days there with a really tight schedule of laying out, swimming, eating, surfing, eating, and swimming, drinking, etc... It was the perfect break from our go go go mentality that we had been on since Guatemala. Also it was great to be back at the beach!

The Awesome Fawesome take on Nica

After about of week of traveling with our new South African friends, Chloe and Gail, we decided we needed to come up with a name for our group. Chloe was so proud of herself when she came up with the amazing rhyme "Awesome Foursome". Upon hearing this, Laura and I looked at her puzzled as this clearly does not rhyme.... but after she repeated it again we discovered that in a South African accent it in fact does. So thus we became the "Awesome Fawsome".

After seeing pretty much all of Guatemala, (honestly when we looked at the map it was crazy how much we covered in 10 days), it was now time to explore Nicaragua. First stop the old capital city of Leon. Leon is a really pretty colonial city, but what attracts people to this town is the volcano that lays about 30 min outside of town. Cerro Negro (which is appropriately named meaning Black Hill) is famous for volcano boarding, which is essentially hiking up to the top of a volcano and boarding down on a toboggan. It is a 50 degree slope down about 700 meters and is guaranteed to give one of the best adrenaline rushes of all time. Laura went the fastest and got the 3rd fastest speed of our group (#1 amongst the girls) at 64 km/hour. I don´t remember exactly how fast I was but it was in the 40km/hr range. What I can tell you is i got DIRTY! I honestly had a mustache and beard from the volcano ash! Sexy look don´t you think? For those planning to travel to Leon I highly recommend staying at Via Via Hostel and then booking the volcano boarding across the street at Bigfoot Hostel.

After Leon, we bussed down to Granada, where we did a tour of the lake islands and a horse carriage around town. Its a really cute town very to Antigua. After about hours we had seen it all.... which was a good thing because it started POURING. SO what better thing to do than eat and drink? We settled in at a restaurant and made the most of the happy hour and spent the next 10 hours or so tasting the delicious Nicaraguan cocktails :).

Separation Anxiety

Laura and my next stop was to Guatemala's second largest city,  Quetzaltenango, know by locals as Xela. We added this to our itinerary because the girl who moved into my room in Buenos Aires recommended it.  She is Guatemalan and said ion her opinion it was the pretties part of the whole country.  Now, I definitely agree with her that it is absolutely gorgeous.... that being said would I recommend you go there??  No. It is really far out and while popular for Spanish immersion courses, there is very little happening in the town itself.   What attracts tourists to this region is.... wait for it... volcanoes.  Having seen our share of volcanoes on this trip, we opted for the more leisurely tour up to the hot springs.  The rest of our time in Xela was pretty much spent eating, reading in the main square, people watching, and watching TV in bed.  It was nice to have time to relax, especially since I was sick.

 As mentioned we parted ways with all 4 other girls (Lia, Ereni, Chloe, and Gail) in Lago de Atitlán.  Already it felt kind of strange traveling as just two. Then when we got to Xela our hotel offered a room with a double bed for 60 Q (about 7.50USD) total or our own room for 50 Q (6.25USD) each.  Since I was sick Laura decided we should opt for the second option.... as if spending 24/7 with each other up until this point wouldn't already have infected her (not she did end up getting sick on her second day in town).   I was fine with this as by this point I felt like shit and all I wanted to do was sleep.  Well despite the fact that we were only across the hall from each other I really started to miss Laura.  I would find myself having things to tell her all the time!  haha.  I decided it would be stupid to cross the hall for every small thing that popped into my mind so instead I would make a list.  Not only did she laugh at me for this, but also asked what was I going to do when we actually separated in Sept?!? GOOD QUESTION!!!!

Well I found out the next day when I said goodbye to Laura for 2 days.  I wanted to go to Managua for the weekend to hang out with my friend Bryan.  Unfortunately the tickets were rather expensive to Laura opted to take a flight on Sunday night.  I left her early Saturday morning to catch a bus to Guatemala City.  That in itself was an adventure... Is there ever such a thing as a smooth transport in this region!? Well long story short, my bus broke down.  After waiting for 2 hours on the side of the road I decided I wasn't going to make my flight unless I took a different form of transportation.  So with the help of one of the guys on the bus I hailed a local shuttle to take me to Guatemala City.  From the outside the shuttle looked like the same mini-buses we had been taking all throughout Guatemala..... inside was a different story.  It was jammed pack with about 25 Guatemalan men. And I was on a makeshift bench created at the front of the van facing all of them! it was so hilarious i just had to take a picture! In the end I made it with plenty of time.

It was definitely worth the money and trip!  I had such a great time going out with Bryan, his girlfriend Eliza and friend Joe.  The night I arrived we went to a concert that one of their friends was putting on and then out at night to a club that no joke looked like a pyramid in Tikal.   The next day the four of us went to Laguna de Apoyegue, a lake in the center of a volcano.  It was such a beautiful and fun place!  Sunday night the three ladies flew in and we all enjoyed a WONDERFUL night's sleep and glorious shower at Joe's luxurious apartment thanks to his job at the US Embassy.  The next morning we began the Nica portion of the trip!

Lago de Atitlán

 After Antigua we said farewell to Fred, Shaughnessy and Bryan we headed in to the highlands of Guatemala to stay in the town of San Pedro right on Lago de Atitlán. This area is a lake in a valley surrounded by 5 volcanoes. I do not know if the green was due to the fact that it is currently rainy season (and here we really started to feel it as it rained daily) or if it is always like this year round, but when we were there the area was absolutely beautiful!

Our first day, we spent walking around the lake from town to town with a Guatemalan guide. We hiked for about 7 hours through 4 towns and saw weaving tutorials, men farming coffee, corn, avocados, kids playing soccer, etc. It was really amazing to see the non-touristy side of Guatemala. It was also really cool walking around with a local because not only was he able to teach us about the towns we were visiting and show us all the different trades (weaving, farming, carpentry, etc) along the way, but he also gave us great insight into Guatemalan culture, politics, etc.... I spent a long time talking with him about the up coming elections as well as the infrastructure of the country as it stands. As none of the Ausie or South African ladies speaks a lick of Spanish I got to play translator most of day/weekend.

The next day Lia (who note is a personal trainer and insane about fitness), Chloe (who is also super-athlete), Ereni and I (who are both about the same level of active but not fanatic) decided to hike the Indian Nose - which is a 7 hour hike to the top of a mount where you can see views of many different volcanoes and the lake. Well the night before I started feeling a bit sick. I guess after a while your body does start to catch up with your partying/lack of sleep? I think I jinxed myself in the last blog when I said "You can always make up the sleep, but you can't make up the fun" because all of a sudden at dinner I hit a massive wall. I left the ladies to go to bed (at 8pm) and did not wake up until 11am the next day! Ereni joined Laura and Gail kayaking around the lake while I slept. When Lia and Chloe came back they both said it was one of the hardest things they had ever done! Ereni and I decided my cold was a blessing in disguise. :)

Feeling a little better I joined the girls for our last lunch as 6-some. Chloe and Gail left that afternoon for a brief stop in Roatan. The remaining four of us had the most amazing hour and a half hot stone massages and then had one last dinner together. The next day Laura and I bid the Ausie ladies goodbye as they headed home and we were off to Xela.

I would like to send a HUGE thank you to Lia and Ereni actually coming through with their promise from Croatia and changing their plans to meet up with us in Guatemala. I had SUCH an incredible time with the two of you amazing ladies. Miss your faces!!!!

Very Little Internet = No Blogging Time

So it has been almost a month since my last blog and in this time we have done SOOOO much! The reason for my lack of blogging is twofold. 1) In the majority of towns we have been in there has been either NO internet at all or only WiFi meaning I was able to check email and Facebook on iPods but could not blog. 2) In the towns that did have internet cafes, we seemed to be having too much fun doing crazy activities and/or cocktailing to stop and blog. We finally have a day to just relax and chill so I am planting myself at the internet cafe to upload photos to Facebook and blog. We have some great stories to tell, so I will try to be as brief and descriptive as possible. In case I do not fully catch-up today here is a quick summary of what you´ve missed (blogs links to come):

 

Where we´ve been:

• Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala with our fab Ausie ladies
• Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (known as Xela)
• A weekend with my friend Bryan in Managua, Nicaragua
• Volcano boarding in León, Nicaragua
• Sightseeing and an accidental night out in Granada, Nicaragua
• Weekend at the beach in Gigante, Nicaragua
• Motorbike disaster in Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua
• 16 hour travel day crossing into Costa Rica
• Relaxing and partying at Playa Santa Teresa , Costa Rica
• Zip-Line Canopy tour in Monteverde, Costa Rica

 

Where we´re going:

• White water rafting outside of La Fortuna, Costa Rica
• Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
• Bocas del Toro, Panama
• Panama City, Panama
• Home Sept 1st

Then there was 9...

Our next stop was Antigua. A visit to this colonial town is a MUST for any traveler in Guatemala. Desgnated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Antigua is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala famous for its well-preserved Spanish Mudéjar-influenced Baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches.


In addition to getting great advice from fellow travelers and changing plans at the last minute the thing I love most about backpacking is meeting new people. As Laura and I are very outgoing people, with lots of traveling experience between the two of us, I feel it is really easy for us to make new friends in the traveler's circuit. Due to our persuasive and positive attitudes we have convinced many a person to not only change their original itinerary but also their entire flight plans! By time it we were ready to make our plans for Antigua, Guatemala our group had grown to 9 people: Chloe and Gail, our South African friends from the sailing trip; Shaughnessy and Fred, our friends who from our tours in San Ignacio, Belize; Lia and Ereni, our Ausie friends from Croatia whom we convinced to forgo their return to Australia and instead meet up with us in Guatemala; and Bryan my friend from high school who is currently living in Nicaragua and had to be in Guatemala City the week before for work.

our 9-some: Top: Chloe, Gail, Fed, Laura, Ereni, me and Bryan; Bottom: Lia and Shaughnessy

Together we formed an incredibly fun group! 7 of us stayed in one dorm at The Black Cat Hostel, while the Ausie ladies stayed in another. The hostel had amazing food, cheap beers and a great vibe. The staff on the other hand left A LOT to be desired. They were all quite rude and incompetent, but I guess I am just spoiled after spending so much time at Bait in Buenos Aires.

There is starting to be a pattern in our travels where the trip there is treacherous, due to either hangover, bad road conditions, cramped vans/buses, etc.... This trip was no exception. I think the 8 hour drive from Lanquin to Antigua def ranks up there in my low point for Central America! That is until we arrived... and the situation that occurred became one of the highs.

here I am acting as translator between Chloe and Rual

After making it to our destination, we were ready to be rid of the car driver, as he didn't seem to be too fond of our group of 6. After all the luggage was taken off the roof Chloe turned to us all and said, "Guys, where's my bag?" We all immediately asked what she meant, and then burst out laughing once we realized that her backpack was not amongst our other luggage. Raul, the shuttle driver, looked quite annoyed as he called our hostel in Lanquin, El Retiro, to inquire if it was still there... Sure enough Chloe had left it at reception. The funniest part was when Raul said in Spanish, "¿Puedes creer que la gringa loca dejó su mochila alla!?" (Which I then translated to our whole group: Can you believe the crazy gringo left her backpack there?!" Raul told us he would bring the back when he came back to Antigua on Sunday (it was currently Friday).

the only pants Chloe could find to buy for our hike

Well come Sunday there was too much rain and he was not able to make the trip.... but he would be coming tomorrow. The only problem was that we would be leaving for Lago de Atitlán. Luckily Chloe and Gail would be returning to Antigua one night before they headed off to Honduras. What's another 3 days without clothes? Well when we called on Monday to confirm the drop off had been made at The Black Cat, Raul said that the people working there refused to accept the responsibility of the bad. This is after we spoke to several different employees multiple times explaining the situation (like I said incompetent). I think all has been resolved as Raul left the bag at his travel agency before returning to Lanquin. We are awaiting updates from the girls tonight when they arrive back in Antigua.

Once this whole debacle was sorted out (or so we thought) we headed to our hostel to meet up with Lia and Ereni.

Lia and I sharing a beer after we met up with the Ausies

Ereni, Lia, me, Gail and Laura ontop of the bar

Several beers and burritos later we headed out for the night and went to a local Irish Pub across the street called Riley's. Honestly I think I have been to ore Irish Pubs abroad now than in the States. The night was an absolute blast! We danced the night away, spending the majority of our time on the bar. Normally I find girls who do this a little slutty (sorry if I offend any readers), but the bar was so packed that when someone offered me their hand to pull me out of the crowd I gladly accepted it. It was great being above the hot steam of the crowd.... Additionally we had prime location to order cocktails as all we had to do was lean down. I had a mega crush on an Irish bartender so I offered to do a lot of the ordering. After a necessary late-night snack we headed to bed around 2am.

lovely ladies hiking a volcano!

Only to wake up at 5am the next morning for a hike up the active Pacaya Volcano. We've decided we can always makeup the sleep, but you can't make up the fun - YOLO (You only Live Once!) That is until we drop dead from exhaustion, hehe. Anyways in addition to the 6 girls who had been out the night before, my friend Bryan was pretty exhausted himself as her had to leave Guatemala City at 4:30 am to make it to us before the hike. All worth it. The hike was very nice and not too difficult (though I can def tell I am so out of shape!). After about 1.5-2 hours hiking on loose volcano pebbles/rocks, we reached the highest point that we were allowed to traverse (tours cannot go to the top as the volcano erupted last year and there is still gas and lava at the top). In addition to the great views we also got to check out some hot holes where the steam of the volcano seeped out. I got in one and boy was it hot! In fact it was so hot that we were able to roast marshmallows in one hot hole! They were quite possibly some of the best any of us had ever had! On our way down the girls were all drawn to a table with jewelery. The man at the table told us that all of the pieces were hand crafted with lava from the eruption last year. 15% of the profits went to building new homes for the people whose homes were destroyed. After hearing the amazing story we all decided we needed to buy a few pieces!

me and Bryan, a friend from high school

the warmth of the whole was so nice at the windy top!

roasting marshmallows

new awesome game we learned called "woop, woop, woo"

After a full morning of hiking it was time to return to the hostel, eat, shower, relax, explore the town and then begin drinking again :). We decided to check out a few other bars with some people from our hostel. Antigua has a lot to offer at night....The one thing that sucks is that every place closes down at 1am. After living 9 months in a country where 1am in the start time, it is hard to adjust to such an early night. We tried to take the party back to our hostel to play some drinking game of in the common room. This was quickly thwarted by the security man..

The next day we explored the town a little bit more and then checked out the local markets. As expected I spent an obscene amount of money on presents as well as tapestries for myself. What can I say, I love markets! That night we went out to dinner to celebrate our last night together as a 9-some.