Costa Rica and Panama City May 9 - May 15

By this stage of the trip we had run out of time, as we had to boost it to Panama in order to get our sail boat from Portobelo (Northern Panama) to Cartagena (Colombia). We therefore only had 3 nights in Costa Rica and 2 nights in Panama City. In Costa Rica we chose to go only to the Adventure capital and make the most of the adrenaline filled activities. 

Boy racers exist here too

Monteverde. It was a welcome change of climate as it is a little village in the northern mountains of the country. We experienced rain for the first time in months and actually wore a jumper as it got cold! Highlights were the serpentarium - full of poisonous frogs, turtles, tarantulas, vipers, boa contrictors and an overactive rattle snake. Then that night we splurged on a night tour of the cloud forest. That was well worth it. We saw a sloth with her baby, vipers in the wild, an orange tarantula, headlight beetles, a huge ant mound, duelling scorpions, blind spiders, sleeping toucans , owl moths, bats, stick insects the size of branches (mating actually) and blossoming coffee trees. It was absolutely incredible.

The next day we were real Costa Rican adrenaline junkies. We signed up for ziplining and have lived to tell the tale. That was outrageously awesome, scary and awesome again! We did the longest zipline (superman style no less) in Latin America - 1590m long. Seriously scary when you are 100m above the ground flying through at god knows how fast, loking straight down at the jungle below. What an experience. Movie attached... 

Loving it?!

Green tree viper

Finally got to see turtles!

Overactive rattlesnake - thankful for the glass between us!

Night tour

Still laughing before the adventure

Headlight beetle, doing a poo on our guide

Then it was time for a 28hour journey to Panama City. The border crossing was horrible. We arrived at 4.30am at the border only to line up for 2 hours before the border actually opened. And then 5 hours after we arrived, we had made it through the immigration process and were back sleeping like babies on the bus all the way through to Panama City. WE finally arrived at our hostel that we had booked. It was rubbish and miles out of town. A grumpy pair of Julien and Jenny reluctantly paid our cancellation fee and ventured back into the city for a couple of nights of airconditioned bliss.

Panama Canal. WOW!!!!! One serious feat of engineering. The highlight of Panama City without a doubt. 14,000 ships go through there every year. The biggest ones pay taxes and levies up to $400,000 USD. The upgrades are well underway and the new canal will be able to let through boats that carry up to 12,000 containers (currently the max is 4500). The museum was so well organised and very informative. While we were there we saw about 10 boats go through, including a small catamaran who seemed as excited to see us as we were to see them! 

Then we spent the rest of the day taxiing about making sure we did and saw everything we wanted to in the city before getting the bus north. (which we are just about to do). Panama City is awesome, has loads of great restaurants, beautiful shore lines, impressive modern buildings, great beer, and lovely people. The old city is very impressive. It reminds me of the other old colonial cities and how they would have been a mere 10 years ago before the governments spent millions upgrading it. This old city is a mix of beautifully restored colonial buildings and run down crumbling ones. A really impressive juxtaposition of two lifestyles and two eras. There is no tourist centre to speak of and we were just mixing with the locals, getting laughed at by them when we inadvertently spill water all over ourselves in a tired attempt at rehydration.

Beautiful and fun! Off we go now to the boat. 

Lego?

Ready for some canal

Super excited

Boat leaving the second lock on its way to the third

Panama city Casco Viejo

We knew we were in the right place when we found Rossini and Moliere

Salmon and three veg - heaven!

Panamanian police working hard, ready for that high speed pursuit on bicycle

The supermarket had aircon... the hats were worth it!

Locals discussing the world´s problems

View of the city from the causeway

Utila, the Bay Islands and Honduras. 25 April- 2 May

Five weeks in Guatemala was up so soon enough it was time to get the early morning bus to the border and move on to Honduras. Driving through banana plantations that lined the border we entered yet another Central American paradise. The local buses were incredibly cheap but they took an eon to get anywhere. Having left at 7am we thought we would get to the Bay Islands (Caribbean Islands off the coast of Honduras) by the evening. No way. We did make it as far as La Ceiba. After a huge Chinese meal and a book exchange we were off on the morning ferry. Often called vomit channel, we lasted the journey very well without any bodily expulsions.

Utila. It is a beautiful island with not many people, lots of dive centres and bars. It was great! We spent six days there, including my birthday.  We found a beautiful place called Rubis Inn right on the water front, with a jetty going straight to the sea. Plenty of diving training for Jenny! I got straight into diving, which is pretty much the only thing to do on the island. JEnny had a week long holiday from me by the sea, I bet she loved it! She certainly powered through the books. Diving was amazing. I did my PADI advanced divers course which was great. In total I had seven dives and they were great. Highlights were, huge moray eels, phosphorescence underwater on the night dive, spotted eagle ray, huge king crab, 30m underwater deep dive to the sunken cargo ship and the spectacular exits off the boat James Bond style (with more grace of course). 

Caribbean oasis

Rubi´s Inn

View from our room

Beeched as bro!

30m decent to the Halliburton wreck

Then the day came when I was a qualified diver and it was my 25th birthday and Jen had organised my best yet! It was amazing! Awoke to a fantastic breakfast complete with BACON! Wow that delicious. We hired a boat and headed off to Water Cay - an uninhabited island that we almost had to ourselves for the whole day. Beautiful white beach and a couple of Coronas and we were set. The fish came around to wish me a happy birthday - as evidenced by their continual nibbling of our feet! On the way back we stopped off at one of the populated cayes and Jen was in photographers paradise. IT was a real local island with kids running everywhere, boat repairs and only fish burger restaurants. 

That night we had fresh fish on the water front cooked beautifully in Caribbean spices. That night it was sharing tarantula stories with fellow divers at the most quirky bar we´ve ever seen. It was amazing, called TREETANIC and made from all sorts of odds and ends. A night out with the divers was awesome! 

A particular highlight though was hearing from you all. Thanks heaps for all your birthday wishes it made my day!

Reading through all the awesome birthday messages

Start of the boat trip leaving from our hotel

Another family had the same idea as us

Water Cay

Corona, sun and sand - bliss!

Pigeon cay - Fish burger restaurant

Wheel-barrow derby

Caribbean spiced whole Snapper

Why do bars do birthday shots!?

Final Utila supper

Jen was preparing for my imminent death by diving

Main street Utila

Parrots dive crew

 After I had grown gills and Jen had read several books we were set to move on further south and keep on with the Central American trip. Next stop was San Pedro Sula. Apparently it is continuously in the top 5 most dangerous cities in the world. DIdn´t know that before we went there. We had a hostel sorted out for us and he offered to pick us up from the bus station and get us all sorted for our bus to Nicaragua the following. What a great night we had there though. Roque picked us up and first stop was somewhere for food. We stopped at the service station and then changed cars for our comfort - he brought us the Hilton van - how´s that for service. Then personal service to McDonalds, and home to our first night with Air Con. A treat considering it was 40degrees C. 

We didn´t realise how safe we were in Roque´s house until the following morning when we bumped into the Irish girls from the day before. They stayed in a scummy hostel in the centre of town scared shitless all night. They awoke at 4am for the morning bus to Nicaragua (same as us), walked outside their front door to find a murdered prostitute lying directly in front their front door. CSI was underway and they couldn´t wait to get out of there. It really was a dangerous city and it was time to move on!

Honduras was cool, but it was time to move on yet again and see what Nicaragua had in store.

Una semana en Nicaragua. 2 May - 10 May

First stop, the colonial city of Granada. After a a 13 hour Tica Bus ride, we were Granada-bound from the capital, Managua. This is where we learnt that there is no such thing as personal space for Nicaraguans. We had our behinds and infronts jammed against peoples top halves as we stood up for a one hour shakey journey. The music was wickidly cheesy and we pretty much lip synced to our hearts content for the one hour journey. Our hearts weren´t very content when we looked at 3 hostels, finally went with the more expensive, less prostitute filled spot and had a terrible night. Cockroaches, cobwebs, prison like, tobacco infused room. Julien passed out. I lay awake. Finally had the balls to go for a midnight pee, only to find a massive cockroach in the sink. This lead to a sweaty couple sitting outside our room in a grotty corridor only to find the hostel worker watching porn on the huge TV. Finally it was 7 a.m and I could justify making loud noises to wake up Julien, after a Tripadvisor search. We found the perfect hostel, which was actually cheaper (Hostel el Momento).

Granada

Hammock makers at work

Central plaza tourist market

Nelson. The 21 year old, Melbourne, poker dealer who had a thick Australian accent (yes, upward inflection on every sentence) has stuck in our memories. He came from a Contiki in Equador to Nicaragua because a Survivor season was filmed there! Crazy. Didn´t speak a word of Spanish (you know the type who think if they speak louder and more slowly in English that they will be understood). Anyway, you get a picture. He hung on a bit. He went on a boat cruise through the Granada isletas with us, which included dinner in a remote hotel! The next night he came out to the Garden Cafe for dinner, and then to a local bar for drinks with us! Its not often there are long silences with Julien about, but after asking him all about his life, it was difficult to engage in any conversation! Anyway, everything in Granada was great and we still enjoy taking off  his accent, which makes time pass on long journeys. It was very hot, so after we sweated when seeing the main sites (the market had something to stimulate every sense. Birds waiting to be killed, ropes of alive craps, fish guts, plantain chips, pinatas, lingere and many pairs of flip flops) we went to a hotel, spent $25 each on all day pool entry and a spa treatment! Bliss!

Enjoying a Tona as we passed the house of the owners of Tona Beer!

Boat tour through 365 volcanic islands in Lake Nicaragua

Ropes of craps for sale!

The very territorial ducks at the day spa. 

Vigaron - local dish of pork crackling, cabbage and yacca

Isla de Ometepe is made up of 2 volcanoes with an isthmus ajoining in Lago de Nicaragua (Central America´s largest lake). Night one we met an hilarious couple, Grant and Bernie from Winchester. They had wicked English humour and we skipped right past the usual travel talk, and got down to the nitty gritty conversations instantly! After a few litres of beer and a pizza, Grant convinced us to walked up Volcan de Conception with him and a guide at 4.45am the following day. A mere 10 hour walk, straight up from sea level to 1610 metres. (The most technically difficult volcano climb in all of Central America).

Moyagalpa, the main town in Ometepe (very small!)

Volcan Conception

The hike was hell on earth.  The first part was relatively flat, but¨watch out for the Coral snakes (deadly) did not warm my mood at 5 in the morning. Nor did the vertical ascent. Watching the inquistive howler monkeys peering from the tree tops at us, and joining their morning monkey song was a highlight! They have the expression of a dreaded hippy after smoking a spliff, but move like athletes. Best of both worlds!! After 3 tedious sweaty hours we made it 1000 metres to the bush line. No time to stop though, as Grant steamed ahead. Ahead was literally up. I was about 400 metres from the top where the rock turned to dust and felt a tad faint so decided to sit it out. I like to think I still knocked the bastard off! Julien kept going, determined as and took off his clothes at the top. He said it was the hardest thing he has ever done.

Almost at 1000 metres. Our guide, Wilton in the background. In high season he walks this 5 days a week!

Bush line.

Knocked the bastard off! Shoes still on ofcourse. As we started the descent, our guide tripped and did a forwards somersault. Enough to get the blood pumping!

Sizing up the mountain as we departed Ometepe on a chicken boat. The one in this picture was much more boat'like than ours!

Worker on the boat pumping water away from the engine!

We felt like seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time, so next stop was to Casa de Olas, San Juan del Sur. This was a brand new, bohemian style hotel which was turned into a hostel because it was right next door to a party hostel (so $13 a night rather than $100, muy bueno). It had free shuttles to town and the surf beaches, and was perched on top of a deserted hill overlooking the sea. Apart from feeling like we´d made it in life by staying here, and froliking about the infinity swimming pool, socialising with awesome people and playing with Buzz, the semi domesticated spider monkey, we had a few great day trips. I has a very special moment with Buzz -  sat next to her when she was sleeping and she climbed onto my knee and looked up at me before falling asleep! She doesn´t warm to females so I was in my element Mareka beach was where we attempted surfing! Julien got up! He threw himself into it. Aside from the thrill of watching him actually surf, his facial expressions and bails were incredible. I am not sure how he can bail in so many odd directions. Well done.

We had a few great nights. I am proud to admit, that in San Juan del sur J.Ho came out. The dance moves were outrageous, and I got blacklisted from ladies night. Felt like I was 21! We found out later that the $1.50 rum and juice specials at the hostel had 2.5 shots of rum in them. Julien found this out later, after being the token slightly inebriated guy at the hostel family style dinner. He was on form, and had everyone crying with laughter! I lost him for a while to the party hostel, but he returned somewhat intact. He was determined to go to the town and beach with me the following morning, where he bought the oddest outfit. Parrot multi coloured boardshorts and a bit of an interesting singlet. What was in that rum, Julien?! Fortunately the odd attire was welcomed back in the stores when we finally realised what had happened that morning.

San Juan del Sur beach

Buzz the monkey!

Sleeping on me!

In the yute on the way to the surf beach

Mereka - surf beach

Jen and Bri surfing

Julien setting off to surf

Mereka. Just two bars and a hostel. Deserted and great surfy vibe. 

Cooling off in the Mexican bar

And we like pina coladas... and getting caught in the rain!

Not just a gourmet burger joint, but a haven in Central America

Day one in paradise - with famous rum in hand

Beautiful sunsets

After all the fun, it was time to leave paradise. We are sad to have only had a little over a week in this awesome country, but also looking ahead to South America and realise it is time to keep moving. Next country, Costa Rica.