A Christmas Gift from Panama

DECEMBER 26^th, 2011 Recap and Recent Highlights/Itinerary

21^st – Liberia Costa Rica to Granada Nicaragua

COSTA RICA TO NICARAGUA DAY

22^nd – all day walking

23^rd – all day fishing

24^th – Granada to MoyoGolpa, Ometepe

25^th – all day hiking

26^th – Ometepe to San Juan del Sur

27^th – all day beach stuff

28^th – all day sickly

29^th – San Juan del Sur to Arenal (Luigis ‘hotel casino’)

CROSSING NICARAGUA TO COSTA RICA

30^th – All Day Arenal hiking

1^st – Arenal (La Fortuna) to Monteverde

2^nd - All day Monteverde

3^rd – All day Monteverde

Canopy day - 1km Superman zip line.

4^th – Monteverde to Grecia

5^th – All day Grecia

6^th – Grecia to San Geraldo de Rivas (Roca Dura hostel)

7^th – Roca Dura to base camp Chirripo

8^th – Cerro Chirripo camp back to Roca Dura Hostel

9^th – Roca Dura to Dominical Playa

Good day of trading songs and Rum drinking. Found the half pipe behind the ‘motel’ there, and shared a board with a young kid you came to give it a go.

10^th –Tortilla Flat in Dominical to David

CROSSING COSTA RICA TO PANAMA

11^th – Purple House in David to Bocas del Toro (Sabrisa Hostel)

One of the most hectic and nerve fraying border crossing that I’ve done. So they wouldn’t let anyone in to panama without some type of proof of a purchased exit transportation. An Indian guy with his wife and young daughter were especial helpful and tried to include me with their family to get back into Panama. I guess it was a stretch. (the guy was running a pizza place “pizza king”). So as luck would have it, 3 other travelers were having the same trouble as me and were holding up their bus that was crossing them to David in Panama. Long story short we bought ‘fake’ return tickets for $18 from the bus driver on the spot, showed them to immigration, hoped on their bus (our only way into panama besides walking or getting reamed with a taxi), and then subsequently selling the ticket back to the bus driver for $10. Weird, but serendipitous, and really convenient.

Ate lunch/dinner at Toro Loco (bocas)– an virtual American bar complete with 5 NFL games going at the same time. Caught a little of the Bills and no surprise they were getting beat pretty good.

$7.70 – purple house dorm

12^th – Sabrisa Hostel (main Bocas del Toro island) to Coconut Hostel

Day on Main Island. Rented bikes for $1 dollar a piece today and started along the east side of the island. The road went for maybe 30 minutes before it gave way to a beach type road crossing a small creek and then into a jungle type of road the sporatic habitacion here and then. Ended up getting to a tentative destination call Playa Buff, where we found a beautiful deserted beach which some incredibly powerful waves. I went for one good surf swim in one of the biggest waves and really felt lucky when I made it back to the surface without incurring some serious injury. Once the wave started crashing I was at the complete mercy of the forces. Litererally flipping around like in a washing machine praying I wouldn’t be pounded in the shore.

Caught an incredible reggae band from apparently Chile(? Argentina) at a hostel called Casa Verde. Ended up hitting the main spots again – Iguana bar, and barco hundido. Neither of us really diggin’ the scene at any of the joints we head home early and last minute decide to stop in at Toro Loco to finish the night – seeing as how it looked pretty chill and tranquillo.

$11 – Sabrisa hostel – slimly floors, middle of the road

$9 – Coconut Hostel

13^th – Coconut Hostel (same sland) to Basitmentos (same name hostel)

Headed to Basitmentos Island solo and Shawn and the girls were doing a day of Scuba and then meeting me over there. Quite close to main island – I believe it only toke about 10 minutes to get there for something like $3.

Kayak trolling near Bastimentos near the mangroves alley side of things. 3 decent fish some type of jack like fish, pargo whatnot. Wished I ended up keeping them once I saw the price of fish at the local restaurant – something like $8 for what they called a filete.

$7 – kayak for 3 hours

$9 – Basitmentos Hostel

14^th – Day @ Bastimentos

Drinking and fishing and cooking the fish. Ended up feeding I believe 12 people with our catch. We all went out with Enrike the hostel owner. Seemed a little strange but he just came out that he would take us all out fishing for only gas money. Maybe he saw that I serious about doing it myself and knew he wasn’t going to get any money out of us. So it was, Moe from the UK, a Finnish guy, Shawn, me and someone Enrike knew. We headed on down through the mangrove area checking some spots here and there once we got to the general vicinity that he seemed to like. Nobody really caught anything that big – but most ended up being big enough to eat. Everybody besides me was simply hand lining using some sardines as they were called them. As for me I was basically fishing the same method but just using the fly rod to a little convenience.

Felt like a great day. It was quite rewarding to clean and help cook the fish with Shawn which ended up feeding a lot of people. The girls, Anna and Sarah pitched in their part as they always do and wiped up some type of coconut rice recipe.

$5 – per person Gas

15^th – Bastimentos Island to Boguete (Mamallana Hostel)

Travel day more or less. Got breakfast at the back place where the English group were working for the Sweds. Great scrambled eggs and all you can drink coffee.

$3, $5, $8 – boats from bastimentos to bocas to mainland, and bus back to David

$3 – big meal at Saboroso, dinner

16^th – Day in Boguete

Bike ride day in Boguete up to the Pipeline waterfalls. Uphill the entire way for over an hour and then a 40 min hike.

$10 – bike each for the day

$3 – entrance to local family for entrance to bottom side of waterfall

$3 – back to Saboroso for cena – another quality good cheap meal

17^th –Mamallana Hostel (Boguete) to Boca Bravo (pacific island 45min from David)

Fishing and beach day. Not much for fishing – eventually caught a small catfish like fish.

Rum night. Crazy lightning and rain storm, and a simply amazing spot to be seeing it go down, perched on a third floor open air floor on a the island’s jaunting

$2, $3, $2, $3 – different buses and last a boat to get to Bocas Bravo from Boguete via David

$7.70 for Hamaca

$30 – bill for todos at bocas bravo – dinner, breakfast, drinks, hamaca, cigarros

18^th – Boca Bravo to Casca Antiguo (Hostel Luna Castle)

Travel day more or less. Got to play guitar at some crossroads waiting to hitch a bus going by. Traded a little with a local – who was showing me some type of Christian rock song.

$3 – to leave island and get back to mainland

$14 - bus roadside to Panama city

$13 per night – dorm style bunk beds in a four bed room. Shawn and I

19^th – Luna Castle Day

Late one here – starting drinking a couple beers a little too early. Full on day hanging more or less around the hostel or in the local vicinity. Caught a Christmas symphony near the point of the island.

20^th – Panama Canal Day

Up groggy slightly hung over, and in need of sugar, water, a little coffee and maybe some food.

catch a taxi to the main bus station, same as the one we entered the city with. Wait not long and grab the express bus to Colon, the city on the Caribe side of Panama to where you can catch the train back at 5:15 pm. Head out with Anna and Sarah who will be staying at some island on the Caribe side. Over an hour and half ride or so from Panama city to Colon. Colon is pretty slummy and dumpy. I remember reading that is was one of the poorer areas in Panama and the view reflected the sentiment. I think we arrived around 1 or so. With some time to kill we tried to search out some beach that the girls needed to get a boat from, the canal itself, the train station and something to eat. Having no luck really on any of these to killed about an hour just walking around some semi-sketchy areas. You know its poor when you turn a corner and have over 10 kids following you around asking for money.

Eventually we decided to play it safe and circle back in to where the bus station generally was and where there was more people around. Found a pizza joint which sufficed, left the girls at the bus station where they were optioning just to take a taxi to find their boat, and Shawn and I headed the direction of the train station.

Slightly overwhelmed with the atmosphere of the Colon the lacking the energy to do it any justice we sat at the vacant platform arriving at about 3:30, read a bit, and both opted on sprawling out on the concrete and sleeping until 5:15. Slightly rejuvenated, we hoped the train at the observation car, and basically joined a small tour in progress. Exchanged stories with the only Swiss guy on the all American 8 day Panama ‘adventure, saw some stretches of the canal and after an hour we were hailing another taxi to get back to the hostel.

$4 – split by 4 – taxi from hostel to bus station

$3.5 – bus from panama city to Colon on the Caribe

$6 – pizza and a squirt

$22 – to ride the train back to panama

$8 – split by 2 – from station back to hostel

21^st – Walking Panama City

Downtown and all around. This is the kind of traveling day I would have done right away if I was traveling solo. I solid all day walk, circumnavigating and trying to digest as much as possible. Left a little before noon and got back some before 7. We agreed that it didn’t seem to be a very hospitable city to a walker, at least to where we were. Huge high rises, and not much to check out besides looking straight up.

22^nd – Last Night/Last Full Day

Taxi to the Muelle – the Causeway connected the 3-4 islands off the near coast here. The plan was to ride bikes and check out the island chain and what’s what. Hot and humid and draining day. Nice little nap and hitting the downstairs bar for 50 cent happy hour beers for the forth day in row.

23^rd – Up at 5:45 a.m. to get the airport the cheapest way possible

Planning to get out by the latest 6:30 I started getting a feeling early today that time was against me. After wasting a good 15 minutes searches for the back of cell phone that hadn’t existed in the first place, I was in a rush to get out the door.

December 10

December 10 -

Sitting at the Tortilla Flat Bar. Packed and ready to head down south, and into Panama. Arrived in Dominical yesterday morning. We woke from the RocaDura Hostel slash restaurant bar a tad before 6 a.m. to catch the 6:30 bus out of San Geraldo de Rivas and back to San Isidro. From my last post, we had one last night in Grecia before we were heading down to meet the English girls in San Jose (the capital), and then heading to the Chirripo base camp. So I’m missing 3 days of stuff…

We arrived in San Isidro for the first time 3 days ago after a decent bus ride from San Jose (2810 C), hmm, maybe like 4 hours or so. Had a pretty easy last night in Grecia, went out to a local Soda (Spanish word for small restaurant), and watched some Spanish subtitled American movie – transformers I believe. Got our breakfast made early at 8 a.m. and were off to get the bus by around 9. (900 C)

So the next goal was Cerro Chirripo. The highest point in Costa Rica – 3820 meters. A two day hike where you hike about 14.5 km to a compound for the night, and the next morning do the 5.3 to the summit. After the Summit you hike the entire way back to town, something like 20 + kilometers. On top of that we had to walk about 2 kilometers just to get to the trailhead….

We pulled into the base camp town – San Geraldo de Rivas around 4:50 p.m. and just caught the ranger station open for a couple more minutes. We digested the feat that awaited us and the prices. $15 a day to be in the park and $10 to stay at the lodgings near the top, total of $40 per person.

We said adios to the driver who brought us over the ridge on a dirt road being repaired – from San Isidro - for $24 split 4 ways. Didn’t see much of San Isidro, got off the bus and immediately started haggling prices to get to San Geraldo de Rivas. No one could beat the first guy’s prices and he even dropped a buck down from $25.

Once through with the ranger we started the walk down the dirt road into the small sleepy mountain town of San Geraldo. Tired, hungry and getting late we settled on the second place we looked at for $10 a person, all splitting the same room with 2 queen beds – called Roca Dura. The first place we checked was the same price but didn’t have a kitchen we could use so that was that. The English girls’ packs were about 60 pounds and I can’t imagine they were really enjoying walking up the steep inclines through town looking for more options. The place was great though. Its was a Sarge Labenski special, gnarly tree limbs for everything – frames, beams, handles, tables, benches, bed frames, etc. The place seemed to have only one room that you could rent, down the stairs into a kind of cave atmosphere set into the rocks, built around a huge rock and walls made of a kind of composite of smaller rocks and concrete, all mixed with gnarled wood designs.

So we all made pasta had some beer and rum and tried to get to sleep early, which wasn’t too much of a problem seeing how buses and travel seem to wear on you, and woke at about 7 a.m.

We grabbed our sleeping bags from a hostel further up the road and on the way to the trailhead, $10 deposit and $6 for the rental fee. Downed a quick cup of coffee for around a buck and embarked on what was to be fairly serious little hike. Armed with rations for two days: tuna, bread, beans, sweets, can of mixed veggies and a can of mixed fruit, a sauce packet, a half kilo bologna, and some trail mix type treats. (~$30)

Maybe the longest single hike I’ve ever done, a total of around 45 kilometers – x (.6) = 27 miles in about 28 hours! Starting altitude around 1500 k (4500ft) to 3820 k (~12000ft), around a 1.3 miles. Legs feeling it 2 days later – with all that said – I was definitely hurting much worse after the Ometepe Volcano hike.

I think I’ll let the pictures tell the story here. One note was that we woke at the mountain lodging at 3 a.m. to hike the 2 hours to the summit for sunrise. Freezing up there!

Beers and pasta to celebrate! Success, and back to Roca Dura for one more night.

… so to get up to date –

Heading to panama in a couple of hours. Leaving from the beach town Dominical, where we arrived to yesterday from San Isidro. Recommendation here. Losts of gringos but real chill and no sign of nutty teenagers just getting smashed. Mostly it’s a surfer spot, nice waves breaking for most of the day, and next a lazy river of I imagine mostly salt for a good ways in. Rigged up the rod and got my first fishing of the whole trip. Shawn and I each catching the same type. Let one go and gave the other to a local.

Day 15: Dec 12 - All Day Grecia

Grecia

Still at the Mangifera Hostel and decided to do another night for the split $30 w/breakfast.

Pretty chill day so far all in all. A walk around town to get some views and look at the neighborhood. On to some pizza - 1700 C - for personal pizza and a drink - not to shabby pizza. Sat about for awhile and worked on some Spanish practice.

Mostly on computer today messing about, and learning some Spanish type guitar songs and riffs.

Looking on heading south early in the morning to I believe San Isidro to see if were go to give a try at the highest peak in Costa Rica. A two day hike some 10,000 ft in elevation. Not sure if we'll get in, supposedly you need to reserve space and apply with some type of parks department. Meeting back up with the English Gals down there to do the hike together.

Alright hangin' on the balcony with some interesting characters for sure, and then one more go at the town for some grub and see what may.

Day 14: Dec 4 - Monteverde to Grecia

MonteVerde to Grecia -

Up at 5:30 a.m. to catch the bus to San Jose, about 4 hours or so. - 2500 Colones ($5)

bus from San Jose to Alajuela, about 45 min maybe. - 400 C

caught it right where we were dropped off in San Jose and waited about 15 minutes or so.

Original plan was to go to Heredia but completely missed the stop and had some difficulty conversating with some locals on the bus as to where we were. So we just kept on to Alajuela which was a bust. Walked around and searched out hostels but was having little luck and decided to skip town to get a little more remote.

bus from Alajuela to Grecia, 45 mins. - 600 C around

Showed up on Sunday so things were a little sleepy and tranquil, so looked good. Also we were in the foothills of mountain range so some pretty good views just outside of the main square area.

Did the meal thing after settling in for bit, skimped and went the taco route again. Again the tacos are fried like a tostada that I'm used to Mexico. So far every 'taco' I've had in Nic. and C.R. have been fried except for the taco stand in San Juan del Sur.

around 1400 C

Shawn and I caught a Futbol match at a local tavern around the corner - apparently we arrived in town to one of the biggest matches of the year. The teams are from the Costa Rican Primera Division - a semi-final match between Alajuela and San Jose. The other semi-final match was a little earlier in the day between Heredia and Cartaga, to which we experienced a little of the hype when we passed thru there earlier in the day.

So we ended up watching the whole game at the Saprissa bar, and getting into it with the locals which were mostly rooting for Alajuela, although a sizable fan base from Saprissa (san jose) was there too - maybe because of the bars namesake. Pretty great game as far as futbol matches go. Goal for goal and some amazing one too with Alajuela squeaking out a with with less than a minute left in regular time, however, the won with a tie somehow which I still don't understand completely. Right proper sporting madness after - not unlike a Sabres win in downtown buffalo, incessant horn melodies for hours into the night, and people milling about all over the park/square area, and filling the local fast night food shops. (to which we'd be no exeption).

The final match is Saturday, we'll have to see where were at and if we'll be able to catch the game.

Day 4 of Antibiotics and all still good there, although I did have 4 costa rican Imperial beers at bar with may negate some of medicine.

Staying at Mangifera Hostel. The only hostel supposedly in this town.

$30 - split with Shawn - most expensive stay so far on our travels. Although it does have the best breakfast so far included.

Grecia - Costa Rica

The main point of interest in the center of Grecia - The metal church. Read it's somewhat rumored as its reasons of origin. But is was shipped from Belgium in pieces.

Some shrub plant we saw along a walk around Grecia this morning.

Day 13: Extremo Canopy

Extremo Canopying today. I put if off for two days and today has got to be the day, they already got my $40 and were leaving tomorrow. Included breakfast at 8:30 and at the last minute I hop the 10:30 to Extremo, and man I'm glad I did. Never had done anything like it before. 12 zip lines, a massive Tarzan swing, a decent size repel and the crowning on the cake the 1 km zip line over a valley will a tumbling stream at the bottom.

The finally! A 1 km long (.6 mile) superman style zip across a deep valley filled with a semi transparent rain cloud!
Heres a video from the companies web site to give you a full scale of this puppy - intense!

Some kind of fundraiser with these kids dancing down the street. Took a walk down to check it out after canopy and chill out until Shawn returned from his own adventures for the day.

Takin' it easy night. Not a ton to do in MonteVerde at night that we know about. Already went to the one main bar/disco/pool hall two nights in a row and really shouldn't drink any alcohol while taking this antibiotics anyway. Got to be up early - 5:20 or so to make sure we get a ticket for the 6:30 bus out down to San Jose. If we miss it then only one other bus for the day 3:00p.m. Couple days down in San Jose (capital) region, and looking to make a booking reservation to do a 2 day hike up the highest peak in Costa Rica! Then on to the Caribbean.

Spent a good couple hours again today looking for the cheapest ways to south america...

Day 12: Dec 2 in Monte Verde: cheese and insects

alright - been researching flights and travel options for past 3 hours.

Doesn't seem super easy to get from Panama to down into South America. Although the sailboat way seems to maybe be the cheapest - its not by much. But from what I'm reading this time of year is suppose to be hard to find anyone that will venture the seas. Too choppy, too windy - something with the trade winds in dec/jan/feb.

So been looking to fly to Bogota or Quito - thinking they might be the cheapest hubs.

looks like $400 to Bogota and $600 Quito from Panama City (PTY).

So then thinking I might be able to fly to B-lo for Christmas seeing its so expensive to get down to get to S. America from here anyway- Buffalo might not be that much more.

However - doesn't look to be the case so far. I've researched all US airlines that travel to Quito and all 3 routes would be around $1000 from Buffalo. (+ to get back to B-lo from here).

Looks like it would end up costing $700 dollars more - not to realistic. Waiting for Nate tho to let me know about some roundtrip he found from WI to Ecuador for $500.

Alright enough of all that - heading to the Cheese Manufacturer today with the posse and then on to night hike to see Sloths!

...

Cheese Factory MonteVerde

Started by Quakers leaving America after refusing to be drafted into the US military during the Korean war. Spent a and year and one day in jail, and then looked for a new country to relocate to. Tried Canada and settled on Costa Rica. Maybe mainly because the military here had been disbanded. The girl who gave us the tour was a descendant of the original Quakers here.

Now a days the company is publicly owned by Quakers, the farmers that bring the milk, and residents of MonteVerde. They are the number one cheese producers in Costa Rica, and is run more like a co-op which has become almost completely green and entirely locally run. A great model for sustainability - and some pretty good cheese too.

Cheese 101: This is a picture of the workers separating the cheese curds from the whey. I learned that all cheese is basically made by adding bacteria and rennet. The rennet is an enzyme that makes the cheese curdle, and comes from mammalian stomachs. The rennet causes the milk to curdle and separates the whey out. The bacteria helps the rennet job and also is responsible for the flavor of the cheese. The comes the aging process, which is based on temperature and time for the different types of cheeses. And that was basically it, with a few additions for certain types of cheese.

After the tour, Shawn and I got a little history lesson from the tour girl about here roots and about Costa Rica in general.

Headed back to down the road to the hostel and readied for the 'night hike' to see some animals that are 'supposedly' more active at night.

Spotted: 2 toed Sloths high in the trees

walking stick insect

leaf bug: insect that looks like a leaf

spiders (tarantula and lots of small species)

and a handful of others I don't know the names of.

Note: Antibiotic may have done the trick, already feeling better. Insect bite on inside of right thigh that I received in Ometepe many days ago has spend into a nice 6 x 4 in itchy rash.

Day 11: La Fortuna to MonteVerde

December 1st, 2011

Pulled into MonteVerde - on the one day of the year Christmas Festival.

Still dealing with the bacteria resident - somewhere in the intestants...

Wikipedia said the TD usually goes away in 2-3 days, been 4 now, and decided to take the antibiotic Azithromycin, 5 days of pills.

Paying $10 a night here at the Oasis Hotel/Hostel, recommended by the staff at the last hotel in La Fortuna.

$18 to get here from La Fortuna on the Jeep - Boat - Jeep option as they call it. More a short ride down a nice road in a small turist van a 30 min boat crossing of a lake then an hour and 45 minute minvan ride on some rocky hilly back country roads.

Left around 8:30 a.m. and got here maybe around noon. Decided against the planned zip line adventure because my symptoms were acting up again - and chose a good solid nap instead with Shawn working on a design project on the bunk above me. Woke, shower, and lit out for the finding this Christmas party/parade thing on the road behind the hostel. Windy, and raining, the locals bundled and huddled along the streets watching school marching groups parade by soaked in dresses, and band uniforms. Quite entertaining.

Hit the local bar/dance club and watched the locals get busy on the dance floor, DJ Tony - playing salsa to house music - and mostly filled with couples doing swirls and salsa like gyrations. Found the pool hall/room below and watched the locals play, trying to figure out what sort of rules they were using. Variations on eight ball - and some game where you can shot for anything and when you make about 6 in a row you win.

Shawn and I shot some crappy games with a couple of nice shots. Met back up with the English girls and headed back to the dorm for an early night of 11 p.m.

Still up at one after well rested from this afternoon and tying to fill the last 4 days that I haven't blogged some stuff....what else...

planning planning - seems like were always planning how to get to the next place and thing to do, haggling prices and discussing bargains and rip offs. Costa Rica is not cheap by any means. You really have to hunt down the deals.

Also been looking at plane tickets and what I'll end up doing once Shawn heads back to B-lo. Nate found a great deal to fly into Ecuador and I've been looking at if it would be reasonable to fly home for Christmas and then to Ecuador or just make my way there. After looking for a little while tonight it looks to be a considerable amount more to go back for Christmas. Still waiting to see how Nate got such a great deal to Ecuador - if I could get his deal it might still be a possibility.

Day 10: Volcano Hikes

Cerro Chato Volcano and Arenal Volcano - swimming and hiking

Great Day!

- up early and soon on the hike to the first Volcano - a dormant volcano last erupting 35,000 years ago. Now a days the center if this beast is filled with 225 ft deep lake that you can swim in.

Quite an amazing experience swimming in the center of a volcano. Again, like in Ometepe Nicaragua the top of the Volcano was covered in a cloud. We couldn't even see the lake until we climbed down into the crater and got with 50 ft or so. Apparently the clouds that were passing had also settled in to the crater filling it coming down right to the water level. We ended up meeting up with a handful of other small groups doing similar hikes but no one wanted to brave the cold and go for a dip. Figuring 'how often do you get this opportunity', Shawn and gave it a

whirl - frickin' cold! - that cold where its kind of hard to catch you breath completely. Shawn had a wild hair so I reluctantly at first followed his idea of trying to disappear into the cloud so they couldn't see us from the shore.

Kind of scary - but thought eh, just a little farther, and then was committed. (got to get this picture from Sarah or Anna if it exists). Once I had enough I flipped to the back paddle float and thought happy serene thoughts. And by the time we walked out I was thoroughly exhausted but really really great! What a refreshment - great massage, and feeling limber the continuation of the hike!

On around back of the Volcano and for a couple more hours of hiking, really just mesmerized by the diversity of plant life and in such strange creations.

(plenty more picture...this blog only lets me do one at a time - so takes forever)

Shawn and I really taking our time and making a concerted effort not to hike to fast where we end up having to stare always where I our feet where instead of what was all around us. We'd often find some new flower, or leaf, or berry, or tree, - anything really just oddities with strange patterns and colors and textures. Feeling like a little kid just constantly getting side tracked...

on to:

- Volcano Arenal - the main tourist destination and the reason La Fortuna became a major tourist town....however it stopped spitting lava over a year ago. Bad news the local tourism economy here. Everywhere in town is still advertising the lava, and some flat out lying and making up reasons why you can't see the lava - the main one is because of rain. Nonetheless, the history of the place, and fact that it could blow any minute I'm sure will keep em' coming. But phew what a view it must have been - some of the picture of all the lava coming down are spectacular - and to think it poured lava for decades!

- swam at Dante water falls - and washed the volcanic mud off our faces!

-stopped at a 'hot river' - eminating from a spring coming from Arenal Volcano - really neat.

-stopped on the way back to see red eyed tree frog.

Prices:

$40 per person - little bit of a rip maybe - considering we probably could have done it for $20 or under with out the guide. However the guide ended up being really helpful - showing lots of things we would have missed, and explaining we never would have known, and a lot of headaches planning out own rides. Not bad.

1800 Colones dinner - good deal for costa rica

Day 9: Nicaragua to La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Day of Travel

lets see ...

Taxi from San Juan del Sur to the border- super early - dawn. $25 for the 4 of us. Shawn, me, and the 2 English girls that have been on the same itinerary as us since Granada. Hoping my ailment won't give me too much trouble today!

$2 border fee to out of Nicaragua. None for Costa Rica (either way).

Found bus at Costa Rican side of border within short order and back down to Liberia - same price as the first time $1400 Colones.

(Note: exchange rate is 500 C to $1 was wrong on the first day of this trip thinking it was 400 C.)

Anyway - Liberia to Canas next bus - caught that within 10 minutes.

Canas to Tilaran - here had to wait 1 hr.

Tilaran to La Fortuna - couple hours ride - beautiful rolling jungle hills.

Got to La Fortuna - talked to a guy outside the bus who worked for the tour agency Red Lava - and followed him back to Luigi's Hotel and Casino.

$10 a night for each of us. Split the room with the girls to save some cash.

- lot of details here like pricing I forgot this being a couple days ago now.

Dinner, walking the town, hit the pool, washed my cloths in the bathtub and laid out on a railing to dry my the pool. Shawn and I tried the pool out with a couple of rum 7 ups, met some folks from Durango, and Toronto - yada ya. -

I have a feeling this itinerary stuff is pretty boring to read - considering its kind of boring to write. Tired tho - and just feel like I want to hit these main points before i forget them!

Day 8: bed ridden in San Juan del Sur

...

Day 7: Hanging out in San Juan del Sur

Beach, guitar, couple beers, and a night of shooting intestinal pains and sudden runs to the toilet.

Good day until night fall. Apparently I've come down with some type of travelers diarrhea. I did fill the prescription for this but I want to first make sure that's its a serious one. I've read that most cases go away in 2-3 days so I think I'll wait and save the prescription in case I get something worse later on. No fun tho - didn't sleep much last night and ended up having to cancel our plans for leaving early this morning for costa rica.

Ended up spending most of the day in the hostel bed. Didn't want to be too far away from the facilities. S0 as of now were going to try again for a 5:30 taxi ride out tomorrow morning and then about 4 bus connection for the next 5-6 or more hours. Could get ugly - hopefully this thing will run most of its course by then. I'd hate to think of the worst case scenario here - tying a long sleeve shirt around the waist ...

So yeah - outta here. San Juan del Sur - pretty much one of those A list lonely planet places. Chuck full of tourists filling the handful of bars on the beach night in and night out. Loads of hostels around every corner. Probably a pretty close ratio of foreigner to Nicas.

Good to do the beach thing for a bit - always seems to get a little lazy to fast tho - which is the idea I suppose - more for vacationing than traveling tho. Got some swimming in, guitar playing, and a fair amount of drinks in. On to La fortuna Costa Rica - home to some type of very active volcano, cloud forests, wild life, etc.

Until then - Hasta Luego

100 C - peruvian steak rice - lomos salta?

17 C - coke

88 C - bottle of Nica Rum aged 5 years

100 C - breakfast sammy

$6 - Eleonoras Hostel

60 C - happy hour drinks on the beach

Day 6: recovery in Ometepe

Feeling it today for sure. Hard to walk anything with a down grade, and I find myself locking the knee when walking in general, must take some weight off of the muscle and more into bone and hip.

Not sure what we were going to do today - plan was to head out and get over San Juan del Sur, but we decide to check on motorbike prices. We go to the lady that Shawn has continually been running into since we arrived on the island and got a price for $15 for something like 2 til 5. We split a aging Kayak 125 motorbike and headed down the other section of the island, the Maderas Volcan section. I took thee reins at first seeing that Shawn had never driven a bike with a clutch before (or a car I believe), and zip along down the one road that goes around this place.

Got a pretty good cross section slice of the island life: every so often a cowboy rounding a small herd of cattle down or across the road, the random tattered dog in its own world crossing the road, rice farmers drying kernels of rice on a flat semi paved basketball court, people general just laying about here and there in small groups, dirty children staring, lots of farm animals littered about.

Took about 45 mins and we at the end of the 'good' road and entering the other half the figure 8 island. I started for it - rough going, more of a big rocky trail then road. For a bit I thought we might be able to make it around this whole part of the island, however, we stopped to talk to a local and we soon found out that it would take us until around 7 to get back where we started in Moyogalpa. So instead we didn't to go back the natural pool called 'ojo de aqua' and take a dip.

Got back just by 5 and as we walked back to the hostel Phil drove by on his way to the ferry, Phil the Australian who we had hiked the Volcan with. We ran to get the bags met up with Phil on the ferry, caught the sunset on Lake Nicaragua, zipped down to San Juan del Sur, went to about 10 full hostel, settled on a hole in the wall, and went out to hit the town for drinks and food.

Ended up running into almost everyone we had met up to this point in our traveling on the Iguana Bar.

Day 5: Conquering Volcano Concepcion

Possibly the most grueling one day hike I've done. Up at 5 - down a cliff bar and get to the Volcano as the sun is coming up.

Day 4: Starting the southbound push

Heading from Granada back south to San Jorge to catch a ferry to the Volcanic island of Ometepe.

The thing to do apparently. Probably make it there say 2 pm. Enough time to scope the place and get a decent hostel before dark.

Interesting note - reaccuring through the last century is a the idea of the Nicaraguan canal. From Ometepe which is a island in Lake Nicaragua u can see the pacific not far away, and lake is connected to the Caribien through the San Juan River on the other side. Wikipedia says the canal was instead built in Panama to quell any competition there.

.. arrived in ometepe around 3 or so. Met a pair on the bus and split a taxi from Rivas to San Jorge where you can catch a ferry over to the Island. Met a guy named Gerald who' presently living in NYC an down for a 9 day holiday. Ended up walking the small town of Moyogalpa looking for hostels together and eventually all settle on the same joint which seemed to have the best deal.

Afterwards we directly booked our trip to hike Conception Volcano for the next morning. The trek being a solid 8 hours of hiking, we were set to live the hostel at 5 a.m. Knowing it'll be an easy one we went to find some local nicaraguan cuisiine and settle in for the night.

desayuno at Mochilas leftovers

34 C Bus - Granada to Rivas

$2 taxi - Rivas to San Jorge

40 C - ferry

$7.5/$15 - hostel split

185 C - dinner, 2 beers, jamaican drink

24 C - cigarillos

12 C - coke

60 C -chips and 2 ltrs water

Day 3: Granada Excursions

solid day so far. flipped over the front of my bike and bloodied up my elbow and palm racing Shawn and Bardillo. We were on our way back from the Islet fishing excursion down the 2 + mile rocky dirt road. Could have been a lot worse but I employed some evasive manuevers and a good tuck rolled up to my feet.


Bike ride to some of the Islets right near Granada to do a little fishing.

The days catch! Hard fishing. Just using worms on about a size 2 hook. So many small fish, they'll strip the hook about 99% of time. Found a sweet spot after awhile and contributed to the days bounty.


Local families elder mujer cooking up the catch, Maria Antonia.



Straigt to the oil. Descaled and gutted.



Bien Provecho! - Plantains are the banana look alikes here. Good tasty solid meal.



The way to come and leave. The rainy season washes though driveway out, they said it was a couple feet higher. Right now it's at a height where its just low enough to make it challenge to get the rickety boat to and fro.
Flipped the bike on the way back. Made to back to Leo to return his bikes and headed back to the Hostel for wound treatment and water. Close to 3:30 so missing the tour to Masaya Volcan - instead try to do it ourselves. Head north after finding the bus station. Similar to Belize these cheap public buses double as school buses so it ended up taking some time. Got dropped off at the Masaya crossroads about a 10 minute drive from the volcano with the sun getting low - 4:30. Found a taxi and haggled a price while traffic honking in the extended row behind him. Made it to the volcano with seemingly time to spare - however - apparently they close thbCe entrance at five to anyone not in a tour group! It was 5:06! I would have definitely haggled but my Spanish is crap for that.
Hit the next bus back to Granada, after we stopped at an 'On the Run' gas station.
Pretty chill night - went back to the Gringo Calle(road) - late and hard try to fight local 'off the beaten track' food. Although we did find traditional dishes. The meal so far is Indio Viejo. Shawn ordered it again, except this time is was way better.
Crushed up corn tortillas, beef, onion, and some spices and maybe some other ingredient - all mushed up into almost a soup.


$20 each - bikes/guides/fishing/fish prepared by local family 9 til 3
street market prices:
desayuno
18 C /6 eggs
10 C /small bag chilies
20 C /2 sandwich loafs
15 C /tomatoes
9 C bus from Granada to Masaya
120 C taxi Masaya to Volcano
9 C bus from Masaya to Granada
$7 Hostel rate
24 C /belmont cigarillos
15 C /coca-cola classic
250 C /shawn and I meals and couple Tonas (50C tacos/ 90C indio Viejo)
20 C /hostel tona

Day 2: Granada Nicaragua

Felt like I slept for 2 days...almost 12 hours anyway.
Feeling pretty good - didn't go overboard last night, just 2 Victorias (which I believe is a local Nicaraguan beer.

Hit the banco up for some more Cordobas and then walked Granada with Shawn for a couple hours down the Malecon and got a bead on some fishing and island viewing in the Laguna de Nicaragua. 365 Islets. $15 for both of us for an hour long ride/fishing excursion.

cigarillos: 35 C ($1.5) shawn
coca-cola: 10 C ($.45)
aqua: $1

figuring out the next move, but enjoying just staying in one spot for a bit. Crossing borders is always a bit of a toll - in more than one way. Got some news from some fellow travelers from Colorado about the Crossing - from Panama to Columbia. They illuminated some relevant information but mainly the fact that during the Christmas/New Years time period it will be hard to book certain things. So - need to start planning this sooner than later.

Met with some Dutch girls and hit the town for a bit. Played some pool on some crappy tables and tried a new meal called Vaco Flaco, which is chicken that looks like beef with some Yuca. Pretty tasty all in all.
bill - 332 C - dinner 3 beers and pool.

$7 - hostel, mochilas

25 C - beer at hostel

Day 1: Buffalo to Liberia, Costa Rica to Granada, Nicaragua

Arrived at airport in Liberia, Costa Rica about 1:30 pm 21st of November, Monday. In quick order and on Shawns advice I hopped a bus for less than a $1 to the city/town of Liberia where I was to meet Shawn, 100 mts north by 25 mts west of the destination terminal, at some hostel, which I had conveniently forgot to write the name of down.
Currency exchange:
400 Colones ~== $1 USD

-bus ride from airport: 320 C
-bus ride from terminal de busas to frontera: 1400 C (3.5 USD)

Travel luck on my side - my bag which I reluctantly checked made it to Liberia. After I thought about it, bad idea. It would have been a royal pain to try to track down that bag had it not arrived. Made it to the terminal walked north and found Shawn outside. Meet a guy named Marc from Montreal on the bus and we helped him out with some translation and left him at the hostel Shawn had stayed and then off to the Frontera - the town right before the border with Nicaragua.

Got exit stamp and then walked over the border to Nicaragua immigration checkpoint. Paid: $12USD for entry.
Getting the typical run around not to take the bus from the local 'drivers' at the border and how its cheaper and easier to just take their taxi for around $30.
Found a bus that went directly to Granada for $10 USD a piece and easy as that.
Nice bus - turned out to be tourist group bus of some kind that had gone over the border - showed the movie Contagion as I passed out for a bit on the end of the guitar.

Time very strange how its passing. Maybe from some type of traveling jet lag mixed with some kind of excitement. But mostly probably just the strangeness of a new land and not know much of anything about what going ON. Bus to frontera maybe an hour or two. And the bus from Frontera to Granada maybe about the same.


Eventually go to Granada, dark, and eventually found the hostel in Granada that Shawn had make some type of reservations at. Hostel de Mochillas. $7 USD per person for the private room.
Hit the town for a tad - $418 ($19USD) Cordoba for 4 Victoria beers and 2 fajitas meals
Currency Exchange - Nicaragua:
22 Cordoba ~= $1 USD


Got to bed before midnight - a little rung out after a solid day of traveling. Not bad for day.

Post 1

9 days until departure. Buffalo to Liberia, Costa Rica. No definite plans or time lines from there. Only plans - learn Spanish, and continue south.
gear:
11.6 in acer notebook.
mini guitar w/ case
three of each - clothing
flipflop and sneakers
8 wt flyrod/reel/flys/line/weight
light toilet trees

and that's about it. trying to stay as light as possible. may be able to get guitar into the pack which would be ideal.

nothing else to report as of now. just using the last days to file away some to dos and get ride of any worries and responsibilities here. The great trek will soon commence...