Nicaragua and Costa Rica Surf

We got our surf boards in San Juan del Sur. Ian got a 6'0 skinny pointy little number and I got a 6'4 fat fish. We also got a board bag and they both fit inside, which is perfect. We spent one night in San Juan del Sur then took a taxi to Maderas beach the next day.

Maderas is a little beach about half an hour from San Juan del Sur. There's one building there that has rooms, a restaurant and board rentals. We got the last room available. Lucky us. The place was pretty grungy and the toilet was only a little better than an outhouse (well, it was an outhouse, but it flushed, but it didn't have a handle, you had to fill up a bucket from a trough just outside the door then throw it down the toilet to flush it. I got used to it but I was happy to say goodbye.) We set up our hammocks in the trees and cooked our meals on a little table nearby. Lots of pasta and beans. All this was completely worth it. To be able to wake up with the surf breaking right in front of you is priceless. I usually surfed twice a day, morning and evening, and tried to stay out of the blaring sun of midday. Ian just surfed all the time. We did take a few walks on the beach. One day we walked around a point and had to swim through a surge channel, then climbed on some giant rocks that made a point out in the water. We met some really cool people and hope to stay in touch with them. We spent 4 nights out at Maderas and it was just wonderful, although we had one of our hammocks stolen (not the expensive one, thank god!) but then one of our new friends sold us hers for $5, so it all worked out in the end.

We spent Wednesday night (I think it was Jan. 27th?) back in San Juan del Sur and stuffed our faces with pizza. The next day we took a cab to the border and spent 4 hours in lineups trying to get across. The worst border crossing ever!!!!!!! It was so busy, the lineup to get in to Costa Rica curled around the parking lot a few times. We were meeting Ian's cousin, Sonja, and her boyfriend, Nathan, on the Costa Rican side and thank the powers that be they found us. They have been is CR for almost a month and have rented a car. So now we're mobile! It's awesome.

We were supposed to meet up with our Aussie friends on motorbikes on a beach on the northern pacific, but we missed them so we decided to head straight for the Caribbean. Sonja and Nathan hadn't been there yet and Caribbean swell won't last too much longer. We made it all the way to San Jose and spent a decadent night in the Best Western and ate at the prestigious Denny's Restaurant. I had a half hour long hot shower the next day, Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

So now we're in the Caribbean town of Cahuita, about an hour from the Panama border. It's so great and chill here. We had an amazing seafood feast last night, complete with lobster, crab, snapper, conch, prawns, muscles and pollock. What a great reunion with the Caribbean ocean, to eat a little bit of everything in it! We got up and surfed this morning (YES, surfed the Caribbean!!) then headed to Puerto Viejo, the next town south, to check out a surf competition. We surfed a little bit at another beach there and stocked up on coconuts to mix with our rum tonight. Not sure how long we are going to stay but there are so many things we want to do. Sonja and Nathan want to go on a fishing charter and Ian and I are going to tag along too. Then there's hiking to the waterfalls and then surfing as much as we can. So much to do!

Last Day on Ometepe

Our last full day on Ometepe was lots of fun. Guillermo took us on the 7:30am bus (another early morning, but not as early as 4:30am when we hiked the volcano!). The petroglyphs were spread out on a property that was part cirtrus orchard, ranch and hotel cabanas. We had the typical breakfast of Pinto Gallo and Huevos (Rice and beans mixed together on the side with eggs). We walked around the property and Guillermo told us what each rock carving meant. I think the indigenous people migrated from Mexico and were called the Churortega, don´t quote me on that. I tried to google some of the history so I could get the spelling, but all I found were travel guides. Anyways, some of these petroglyphs were 4000 years old! After taking a detour to the beach, we caught another bus and went to Ojo de Agua (Eye of the Water) which is a pool built in then mountails that´s fed by a natural stream. We met up with one of Guillermo´s friends, Jiro, and had tons of fun splashing around. We got home in the early afternoon and just chilled for the rest of the evening.

We left Ometepe today and have arrived in San Juan del Sur, a touristy surfer beach town on the south west coast of Nicaragua. We´re off to buy surf boards and hit the beach!

Volcanos and Isla Ometepe

Our trip up Volcano Masaya from Granada was pretty cool. First the tour took us to a market and we spent too much money on clothes, but we bought some nice shirts for ourselves. Then we drove up to the top of the volcano and met up with a larger tour group. The volcano was smoking like crazy. The picture on the bottom is at the top of Volcano Masaya. Then we went for a walk into some caves and saw lots of bats. It was dark when we came out and we could just make out the glow of lava down in the crater. Apparently it's usually a lot brighter, but there since there was so much smoke coming out, it obscured the light. Still, it's cool to know that there was lava running under our feet.

Monday we took a boat from Granada to Isla Ometepe. The boat ride was 3.5 hours and was pretty good. We sat outside and read books. Ometepe is an island made up of 2 volcanos, one active, Conception, and one inactive, Maderas. The picture at the top is Ometepe from the boat. We hired a guide for Tuesday to take us up Maderas, his family owns the hotel we are staying in. His name is Guillermo (spanish for William) and was a riot, the guy was funny. The hike up and down Maderas is 7 hours ( 4 hours up and 3 down) so we had to get up at 4am to catch the 4:30am bus. The bus ride was 1.5 hours and bumpy and very very slow. Most of the roads on Ometepe are dirt and full of potholes. At times I was sure I could walk faster. Oh well. From where the bus dropped us off, we had to walk 1 km to Finca de Magdelena, a farm and backpackers hostel and aslo the starting point of the trail up the volcano. We had breakfast and headed out about 7:3oam. The climb was crazy! The first half was like any other hike up a mountain, steep in some places but ok. For the second half of the climb, we got up in the clouds and it got wet. It didn't rain, but it was so crazy muddy. I was slipping and sliding. Guillermo had to catch me a few times, but at least the mud was soft if I did take a tumble. Finally we made it to the top and decended into the crater. We found a turtle on the way down, the hike must have taken him months! We had lunch beside the lake in the crater but it was too muddy and cold to swim. The decent was pretty fast. Again, in the real muddy spots, Guillermo had to catch me again from sliding down on my bum. The picture of us in the forest is about two thirds the way up, and the other one is Volcano Conception taken from about half way up Maderas. When we got back to the Finca, we washed off our shoes and rewarded ourselves with some nice cold beers. Then took the long bus ride home. Maderas is almost 1400 meters high, the distance to the top was 5 Km from Finca Magdelena or 6Km from where the bus dropped us off. Needless to say I'm feeling very sore today. Although thanks to Guillermo, not so much. He went to massage school for a bit and offered me an hour massage for $10! He ended up going for an hour and a half so I gave him $15, and it was worth every penny.

That night we had drinks with some guys we met on the volcano who decided to stay at our hotel. We stayed up late playing cards and drinking rum and coke. Apparently after we went to bed, one of them caused some problems and broke some stuff. Crazy. Glad we weren't around for that but they left today and calm has returned. We had plans for today but they've been pushed back to tomorrow as we are a little hung over and very sore from the day before.

Tomorrow, Guillermo is going to take us to some spring-fed pools and to see some petroglyphs. Then Friday we're off to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific coast to buy some surfboards and get back in the water. Yay!

Granada

We arrived in Granada on Saturday, Jan. 16. We found a hostel to stay in. It´s a old converted colonial house, that used to be a school and is now a hostel. Our room is huge, with a high ceiling but no bathroom, which is fine as the communal bathroom isn´t so bad.

Saturday we just walked around the town, getting family with the layout. Hit up the bell tower of one of the big old churches for a view of the city rooftops. Went to the market and was bombarded with merchants selling their wares. We bought our first ripe mangoes, they were super tiny but delicious. At night we hit a couple of different restaurants around the central plaza, having drinks and appys at each. We headed back to the hostel at the usual time for us, around 9pm (yeah, lame we know) and read our books before calling it a night.

Today we walked down to the lake front and inquired about boats to Isla Ometepe. We`re going there tomorrow. We had vendor hot dogs for breakfast and waffles and coffee for lunch. We`re going on a tour today that takes us to a big artesan market then up an active volcano. We`re going at night so we can see the lava light up the sky.

The sunburn on my face is peeling like crazy. Eeesh! Oh well, not bad that I got my first sunburn bad face burn moer than 2 months into the trip. Can`t wait to see the volcano. We`ll be seeing a few more on Isla Ometepe, it´s an island made up of 2 volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.

Random Pics from Nicaragua

Statue just outside Granada. The FSLN was the Sadinista National Liberation Front, the revolutionaries that finally stomped the dicatorship and ended the civil war at the end of the 1970`s.

Another pictures of Las Peñitas.

The Parque Central in Leon (cental plaza).

View of a smoking volcano on the bus ride into Nicaragua.

These pics are all out of order but I had some time and I wanted to upload some that I didn´t have time to add before.

Granada and Leon

Busy market on one of the streets of Granada.

Top of the bell tower overlooking the rooftops of Granada.

Flor de Caña rum distillery. Ian took a longer exposure pic as it was pretty dark in the barrel warehouse. There were over 18,000 barrels of rum in here. Oh the fun we could have!!!

The busy marketplace at the bus depot in Leon.

Las Peñitas and Leon, Nicaragua

Sunset at Las Peñitas, finally a real pacific sunset.

Ian ripping it up on one of the smaller waves of the day, the bigger ones were too far out.

A mural in Leon depicting some of the fighting during the civil war that only ended 30 years ago.

The biggerst Cathedral in Central America, in Leon.

Beach and Booze

We spent 2 wonderful days at Las Peñitas beach, about 2o minutes from Leon. We stayed at a hotel/restaurant in a dorm. The first night there were six of us (me the only girl, nothing new there) but the next night, Ian and I had it all to ourselves. And we got to surf!

The first day Ian and I rented boards and went out there. The waves were pretty big and hard to catch, but I managed to drop down the face of 2 before bailing and I actually rode one, for a little bit anyways. Ian was ripping it up as usual. I got a sunburn even with the SPF 50 waterproof sunscreen so I took it easy the rest of the time. Plus, some punk ran me over and put a fin ding in my board, Jerk! We met some cool guys and went out to dinner with them and hung out. There were 2 Auzzies (Dan and Sam) who were travelling around on motorbikes with custom made board racks on the side of their bikes and 3 Americans (Derek, Carey and Andrew).The next day I took it easy again too, face still hurt from the sunburn. I got some great pics and vids of Ian surfing though, especially the sunset session he did.

Our new American friends suggested a tour of the Flor de Caña rum distillery, which is in a tiny town half and hour from Leon. So they went back to Leon Thursday night and we came back Friday morning. We met for breakfast then met up again to take a chicken bus to Chichigalpa, where the distillery is. The tour was pretty cool, but all in spanish, thankfully our new friends could speak more than we could so they translated for us. And we got a small drink of the 18 yr old aged rum at the end. The other 2 people on the tour had a pickup truck and they were heading back to Leon, we we bummed a ride from them and sat in the back. The tour was free and the trip there only cost us $1. Not bad for a fun day.

Now we are just relaxing in our room, drinking some Flor de Caña rum and gearing up for our trip to Grenada tomorrow.

Leon, Nicaragua

Leon is great. Last night we didn´t do much except find the supermarket to buy beer and rum, then got some late night vender hamburgers and played some cards.

Today we slept in a little bit, which is difficult in Leon. At 7am and Noon everyday a crazy loud air raid siren goes off and echos around the entire town. Apparently it´s from the old days when it was used to call the factory workers to work. I guess now they keep it for nostalgic reasons. Thank god we read about it in the guide book or else it would have scared the crap out of us. The parrot living in the courtyard outside our door also made it hard to sleep in today, it´s very talkative first thing in the morning. After a big cheap breakfast at a cafe, we went to the phone booth store and called our parents. Then we walked around town looking for a book store and a surf shop, failed in both. On our way back to our room, we bought a Mame (pronounced mamay, don´t know if I spelled it right though) which is a fruit that reminds me of a hard peach with a brown skin, orange flesh and a big seed in the middle, but it tastes more like a mango. It´s awesome.

In the afternoon we visited an museum of Nicaraguan legends and torture (yeah, a strange mix), which was an old prison in use from 1920 to 1978. During the revolutions and dictatorships, this is where the government troops (the evil National Guard) tortured prisoners. In all the old cells where life sized figures of various nicaraguan lengends like witches and evil colonels. Our guide, who only spoke spanish, would switch back and forth between talking about torture to how people dance in the street with colourful costumes. It took me a while to catch on. My favourite legend was the woman with the really big boobs that used to kill men by smothering them, also the headless priest that roams the streets looking for his head, or the witch that turns into an evil black pig and kills unfaithful men or the golden crab that´s unlucky to see. We went to see Sherlock Holmes in spanish and now we really want to see the English version.

We´re off the Las Penitas tomorrow, a beach where the surf breaks!

Big Cities, Honduras

We spent one night in San Pedro Sula and 2 nights in Tegucigalpa en route to Nicaragua.

San Pedro Sula we stayed in a run down hotel but it had tv which was good. We ended up going to a mall to catch a movie. The mall was exactly like the ones in Canada, you wouldn´t even be able to tell the difference unless you could hear people talking around you. All the shops names were in english and the good court was full of every fast good you could think of, Quiznos to KFC. We went to see Avatar which was FREAKING AMAZING!!!! It was in English with Spanish subtitles, Ian said most Hollywood movies are played that way down here.

The next day we took a first class bus and rode in the first class section of the first class bus to Tegucigalpa. The seats almost reclined all the way and had foot rests! Then we stayed in a rediculously expensive hotel complete with bell boys (we could have stayed for more than 10 days in Copan for what we paid for one night in this hotel) but we wanted a bit of decadence before we started slumming it again. The hotel room reminded me of a 1970´s apartment. It had 2 floors with a TV on each floor. We went out for Sushi, which was good but Vancouver is still better. It was interesting trying the different fish they served. We drank a couple bottles of saki too. Then we took a taxi to the supermarket and stocked up on port, rum and beer, microwave dinners and the fixings for guacamole and spent the rest of the day and night watching TV in our room.

Sunday, Jan 10, we went to the bus depot to get the bus to Nicaragua only to find that the bus was full, so we spent another night in Tegucigalpa. We had a little issue with the taxi driver wanting us to pay way way way more than we were supposed to, but we just gave him what we paid the other drivers and got out fast. We stayed in a hotel that was half the price as the other one and still had a nice suite with Cable TV. We stayed in bed from about 9am to 1pm then went out to find food. We came across a Little Ceasars Pizza, so we got enough for lunch and dinner so we wouldn´t have to go out again. Then we spent the rest of the day watching TV and eating pizza in bed. Totally Rad!

Tegucigalpa was an interesting City. We didn´t really feel safe there that´s why we spent most of the time indoors. It´s a sprawling urbad centre, not too many high rises, that´s more San Pedro Sula. Tegucigalpa is only the political capital. All the industrial and financial business goes on in San Pedro.

I´m glad to be out of the big cities now. We are finally in Nicaragua in a big small town called Leon, about half an hour from the pacific coast. We´ll spend a few days here before we head to the beach. Leon is beautiful, it has one of the biggest Cathedrals in Central America and it looks old. It´s safe here to walk around at night, which is nice as it gets dark at 6pm. Looking forward to exploring this old town.

Copan, Honduras

Copan is wonderful. We love it here and is probably why we've stayed 5 days instead of the 2 we had planned. The town is actually called Copan Ruinas and the ruins are just called Copan, only a little confusing. Copan is in the mountains, with very steep cobbled stone streets, men in cowboy hats and a very relaxed vibe. It is exactly what we needed after Utila. It's been really cold though, having to wear pants and sweaters. The sun has finally come out today.

The night we arrived we went to a restaurant where the waitresses carried drinks and beer bottles on top of their heads. The next day we layed low, slept in, watched TV, emerged in time for lunch after long hot showers, went back to the hotel then emerged for dinner. The food is reasonably priced and very good. I think we've both put on a few pounds since we've been here. The next day we slept in again but took a tuk tuk to the butterfly farm. We got to see their life cycle, from egg to larva to pupa to butterfly. We spent time in the garden where they flew all around us. That night we went for dinner at Restaurant Elisa, how nice of them to name it after me. Most of the dishes here are served with a side of pickled vegetables, I think they just call is Chile. There's carrots, cauliflower, onions and jalapenos. It's so interesting to see what the regions unique food is. I'm still longing for the oranges from Guatemala, they would peel just the rind off, cut them in half and put salt and a spice called pepita on it. So good!

Tuesday we finally made it to the Ruins. They were beautiful. Only a fraction of the size of Tikal, it has some of the best preserve stelae and hieroglyphics in the Mayan realm. It was just amazing that the art survived over 1200 years. There was a stairway of something like 70 steps made up of over 2200 blocks and each of them had an inscription. It's the longest Mayan text ever found. After the ruins we went to the Macaw Bird Sanctuary, where they take in rescued and unwated parrots, birds, hawks and owls. We saw many different types of parrots, tucans, mot mots, hawks and a pigme owl. We even got our pictures taken holding the huge Scarlet Macaws. We had a wonderful lunch at their restaurant then took a tuk tuk home.

Wednesday we took a tour to Finca de Cisne, a coffee and cattle farm up in the mountains. Carlos came to pick us up in town, he and his family own the property, it was so big it had it's own little town. Carlos has just decided that he's going to plant Cacao and make fine chocolate. We got to help him plant some trees and vowed to come back one day to check on them. After a quick coffee up at the main house, we got on horses and had a couple of hours of riding through the fields, rivers and forests. We saw the construction on a turbine that Carlos and his family have invested in, coffee fields, a field full of pregnant mares, a brand new hour old baby cow, ate fresh star fruit off the tree and just had a great time. Unfortunately, my horse was rather bouncy and I have a sore rear end today. After horse riding we had an amazing lunch, with home grown watercress salad, tarot root, potatoes, beef and a bunch of other things. Then an amazing banana desert with fresh grown cardamon, surgar and cinnamon. Carlos grows cardamon too. We got to see his coffee refining process, from the soaking, peeling, drying and roasting stages. Carlos has some coffee fields even higher in the mountains and with all the rain, he hadn't been able to get his coffee out and it was piling up. He asked if we wanted to go along for a ride and we said of course. What a crazy trip. We were in a 4x4 pick up truck going up very steep muddy slippery skinny roads that had cliffs on one side. A truck ahead of us got stuck a few times and Carlos had to get out and help. It was good to see the boss wasn't afraid to get dirty. After about an hour of trucks getting stuck in the mud and fixing the trucks that broke down, we finally made it to the top. The little town was called Agua Buena Arriba. There the coffee was layed out on a concrete platform. Ian and I helped bag it and load it into the trucks. I am never going to look at coffee the same again. So much work goes into the process . After almost making mud donuts and sliding sideways on the way down, Carlos took us to the Hot Springs. By this time it was dark and to thank us for our help, he treated us to the private spa, which was a series of pools connected by little waterfalls, the top one being the hottest then cooling off on the way down. They brought us a candle and we had a private bathe in the natural hot water. Sooooo gooooooood after a loooooooong day.

Today we are just bumming around town. Ian's had a cold so we're taking it easy as he recovers. Although not too easy. Since it's been so cold we've indulging in red wine cause normally it's too hot to drink the stuff. Tonight we're getting some fresh baked bread we ordered yesterday, cheese, tomatoes and avocados and a couple bottles of wine to celebrate our last night in Copan. Tomorrow we head to San Pedro Sula then the long long bus ride to Tegucigalpa then into Nicaragua. That will probably be a few days travel. I'm really excited to get into Nicaragua, I've heard so many great things. Plus, that's where we start to surf!

Last Days of Utila

In the last days of Utila...
Ian and went scuba diving together and had an amazing time. There was a big group of us, about 10, including divemasters and we went to the Northside of the island. The first site was called, CJ's Dropoff, and it was a wall that went down about 1000 feet. We only went down to 70 feet. The coral and fish were beautiful. We saw a baracuda in the distance but the highlight was the turtle. A Hawksbill Turtle was hanging out on the wall, munching away at I don't know what. Normally turtles are shy and swim away as soon as you spot them, but this one let us hang out with it for 10 mins. We took turns getting in pretty close and just watched him. So amazing! The other dive site was pretty cool, we stayed shallow cause that's where the cool fish were. We got to see garden eels which looked like grass sticking out of the sand, but were little eels that went back into their hole if you got too close. After all the diving, we went for lunch on Pigeon Caye, which was a little island just off the coast of Utila covered in a fishing village.

New Years was quite the party. We went to a couple of different bars and hung out with all our new scuba friends. The first bar was Tree Tanic, which is a cross between a tree house and a mosaic garden. It had wooden walkways and cool art everywhere. Our scuba instructos work there and handed out the drinks. That closed around 1pm so we headed to another bar. Got back to the hotel very late or very early and spent all of the next day in bed. An awesome time.

On Jan 2nd, we took a flight from Utila to La Ceiba, a town on the mainland of Honduras. It was the smallest plane I've ever been in, though Ian's been in plenty. It was very exciting, the plane was full with 8 including the pilot. From La Ceiba, we took a bus to Copan and after 12 hours of travel, ended up in a cheap but very nice hotel with hot water and cable TV in a beautiful quite town. Paradise!

More Copan

Fresh Coffee beans.
Coffee refining in the mountains of Honduras.
Us on horseback on the coffee farm.
Planting a Cacao tree (we´ve vowed to come back one day to see it grown).

Copan, Honduras

The Mayan Ruins of Copan.
The town to Copan Ruinas with it´s steep streets and tuk-tuks.
Owl Butterfly at the Butterfly farm.