Really time does fly when you´re having fun. We can´t believe our trip is more than half over! Also can´t believe how long it has been since we´ve posted an update on our blog. Unfortunately, the farther north we get, the more difficult it has become to access a computer with internet (most places have wifi, but typing lots of stuff on our iphone stinks). Soo... where to begin. Chris left off on our adventures at Rancho Tranquilo on the black sand beaches of Jiliquilo in Northern Nic... which was amazing and relaxing, but also hot. very hot. We were ready to get to the highlands.
We checked out of Tina´s place on Wednesday April 13 and hopped on a bus headed to Chinendega and then onwar to the town of Matalgalpa located in Nicaragua coffee country. We were excited to get out of the heat and ready to hike in the cool highlands in the area.
As usual, our trip took longer than expected. We had to spend about four hours in Chinendega which seems like an eternity in an town thats main attraction is a couple of delapitated churches, a Pizza parlor and a gigantic hot market place that sells knock-off name-brand clothing.
After our long stop over, we finally got on our bus to Matagalpa. The ride was beautiful.... rolling green hills and lush farm land with more white herons and egrets flying around than we had ever seen. Unfortunately, we didn´t arrive in Matalgalpa until around 8;30 at night, which is never fun when you´re in a city with no place to stay. Luckily the bus station was close to the center of town and we were able to find a clean, safe hotel in a nice area for $15. Good deal! We grabbed a bite to eat, and had ourselves a first taste of Flor de Cana rum. Now, we are not rum drinkers, but WOW. Amazing. After our rum night cap, we hit the hay to get ready for our big day of hiking.
We woke up early the next morning and were welcomed by cool mountain air, a bustling and colorful town square, and delicious strong, local coffee. Mmmm... we liked Matagalpa.
We decided to take a chicken bus up the road into the mountains to a German owned coffee plantation, Selva Negra, that had been in the area since 1880... the bus ride was easy and cheap... and entrance to the park was two dollars a piece. We had looked into the same hike that was done with a tour group and they wanted to charge $47!! HA! We paid a total of $4!
The place was surreal. We felt like we had been transported to Europe or a little village in the Rocky Mountains... definitely did not feel like Nicaragua... until we saw the spider monkeys!
We hiked for about two hours and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch at a view point that overlooked the city. When we hiked down we treated ourselves to a like side Tona at the quaint Europe lodge. Perfect day. That night we enjoyed a little too much Flor de Cana and felt that we needed to do another hike to make ourselves feel better. The hiking trail we wanted to go on was apparently not very scenic during the dry season, so we did Selva Negra round two. Just as good as the first time. We made our way down on another local bus and when we got back to town we decided to stroll around, take pictures off life going on as usual in Maltagalpa. It was a really lovely town, and people were always friendly.... funny people in the area were very big on fashion and makeup. Girls always wore make up and everyone wore knock-off brand name clothes like Tommy Hillfiger, Hollister and Abercrombie. Kinda made us feel under-dressed in our grubby backpacker clothes!
We made it an early night our last night in Matagalpa. We were leaving for Esteli early in the morning, and though it was to be an easy trip, things sometimes do not go as planned on travel days.
We got to the bus station right on time at ten to catch our bus on Saturday April 16. It was an easy ride, thankfully. We arrived to dusty, flat hot Esteli right on time at a little afternoon. We walked the mile into town rather than catch a cab, which was pretty unpleasant, but manageable, plus we saved, like TWO bucks. hehe.
We made it to the center of town and found a nice little hotel where we found a room with a private bath for $20. Great deal!
We were not too impressed with Esteli. It was hot. It was dirty and big and did not feel that special, but I guess it is not really fair to judge a place based on one days, so maybe we were missing something. However the entire reason we were in Esteli was to meet up with our awesome Norwegian buddies, Hege and Bjornar. We had not seen them since Costa Rica so we were excited to see what they had been up to in the past couple months.
We met up with them at a local Cuban restaurant that night. We also met their friend Ilva who was a Norwegian preschool teacher who participating in an exchange program that Norway has with Nicaragua. Neat!
We drank beers, ate delicious Cuban food and laughed our faces off. After dinner, our Norse friends invited us over to another Norwegian couple´s house. Andre and Miriam were part of the exchange program as well. We made our way through the dark and a little bit frightening streets of Esteli to the couples welcoming home. The house had an amazing little courtyard and the couple had little candles, were playing music and had a bunch of bottles of wine cracked. The Norwegians know how to have a good time!
We drank good wine, the guys smoked a ridiculous amount of cigars, and most importantly, we learned about the PARTY Swed! Hilarious. I will post pictures soon of Chris wearing the party Swed wig.
We really have not stayed out late EVER on this trip, so when we looked at our watches and saw it was past midnight, Chris and I panicked! We didn´t know how we were getting back to the hotel... well, our awesome Norwegian hosts said they´d gladly call a cab, however... some mentioned Cigar Zone, apparently the hottest red-rope club in all of Nicaragua. Well, for some reason, everyone decided it was a great idea to pile in a cab and head to the club. I was wearing hiking pants, a tee shirt and flip flops, not exactly red rope attire, but we said what the hell, let´s go.
Sooo... we take a 30 minute cab ride to Cigar Zone and it´s decided we have to go VIP style. Chris and I realize we have a total of 20 dollars and it cost 10 dollars each just to get in! Everyone pitched in for us and said we could pay them back. Let me tell you, they do VIP right in Esteli. We had a big bottle of rum, some sode and limes, our own private area with a view of the dance floor, and the guys could smoke cigars to their hearts content.
It only took a little ron for us to get out on the dance floor and make asses of ourselves.. funny enough no one gave us a second look even though they were dressed to the nines, like anyone else at a red rope club.
We managed to stay out until 4 a.m., which is completely out of character for us, but it was worth every second. We loved hanging out with our Norwegian friends and will never forget our time at a red-rope club in Nicaragua... hell, it might be the last red-rope fancy club I ever visit!
OK... so obviously we felt pretty crappy on Sunday morning. Magically we managed to wake up at 9 a.m. and have some coffee and pack up. We headed over to Ilva´s house to say good bye to Hege, Bjornar and to rehash the events of the previous night.... fun was had by all was the general consensus!
Chris and I regrouped, and head to the bus station to catch a bus to Somoto on the northern border of Nicaragua and Honduras. We planned on spending a couple days in Somoto. Our main goal was to visit the canyon, which was supposed to be spectacular. Shockingly it was discovered by scientists until 1994, which seems weird because it is a HUGE canyon!
I will leave you there for now. Other people are waiting for the computer at the hostel. We will up date on our adventures at Somoto, Copan Ruinas, and Flores. Right now, we are preparing for a big hike into the jungle to see some hidden ruins. Amazing!!!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Day 60 & Beyond!
Hey Kids,
Holy jamoly! It's been like three weeks since our last post. I can only assume Japan's cities are clean an devoid of nuclear fallout, a sensible transfer of power has been agreed upon in Libya and the Braves are in first place heading for another title!!! Right, am I right? So, I'm wrong but our travels are still so right! Can anyone guess where lovely Joy is at this moment? Give up? Taking a much needed siesta after hiking through Honduran canyons and waterfalls all day, that's where! Haha.
If you've not followed the posts on facebook, we reached the northern border of Honduras where it joins Guatemala just before the holiest of Central American holidays, Semana Santa or Easter Week. We have posted up in a town called Copan Ruinas, and, as u may suspect, they are most famous for their incredible, Mayan Ruins. However, if u ask my lady, she will tell you that their street food is TOPS. To this point, even the street food in Americana Centro has been...uh...bland. In Copan the pork street tacos are stupendous, the homade ice cream is awesome, the pupusas (more El Salvadorian than Honduran but who cares) fantastic and the cinnamon, sugar drinks (ponche) are strait addictive. Plus, Joy found the best salsa ever, and even I agreed we should purchase our own jar. You know, for the bland times.
However, how did we get here? Where have we been since April 7th? The short answers are the beach, the mountains and two HUGE major cities with a couple small ones in between. We left Leon wanting to explore the north western beaches of Nicaragua before the holy week. During 4/17 thru 4/24 there we gonna be 3 million Nicas at the beaches celebrating Christ's resurrection and cold Tona! We hoped for a more tranquil setting and were not disappointed. The first beach we hit was Las Penitas, 40 clicks west of Leon. Wow! We've never been on a more deserted stretch of beach. 22km to the north and south and it was us, the local fisherman, a couple surfers, millions of shells and hundreds of bird species. For three and a half days we played in the surf (hours a day, we were like kids on summer vacation again) and explored a 20 km. barrier island with estuaries, mangroves, crocodiles and, during certain times of year, nesting sea turtles. Didn't spot Amy sea turtles, wrong time of year, but the birds and crocs were amazing. Joy, our guide and I took a boat 2km up the estuary and another 2km back and it was like being back in prehistoric times. No people, hot, humid, giant herons and crocs. So cool. Our guides little boat ran out of gas about ten minutes from shore, so we had to paddle back. It was hilarious. I wanted a discount, joy told me to shove it, and we were back to playing in the ocean in no time. Side note - super proud of my wife! Normally a bit shy in the water after nearly breaking her sternum body surfing in Coronado, CA, was swimming champ in waves twice as big in Las Penitas. Good job, honey!
Not finished with remote beach exportation, we jumped a couple buses north to another beach just below the El Salvadorian border called Zorros Beach. We heard rumor of a hostel in this area with beach front
cabins, vegetarian food, cold beer and an owner from San Francisco. A five hour bus ride and two cold cobs of corn served via bus window, and we were beach front at Rancho Tranqilo, Zorros Beach, Nicaragua.
A nice young man with shiny bits of glitter all over his face, body and feet checked us in. Julian, glitter man, said he'd been fillin in as owner and hotelier while the actual owner, Tina, was recovering from back surgery in Leon. Apparently, she was stringing more Xmas lights around the bar and took a tumble. Yikes! She cracked her back and her ribs and after meeting her (she returned that day and Julian took of after 1.5 months at the helm) I understood why this fall injured her so badly. She's a tiny person. And what she lacks in size makes up for in Tona and cigarette consumption. For normal people, Tina was probably terrifying, for us she was interesting in a here's-what-an-ex-hippie- computer-programmer-can-do-with-a- little-bit-of-dough-in-Nicaragua kind if way. It was impressive. She didn't rise before 11 am, subsided on smokes and Tona, but kept her place spick and span and the food tasty. We stayed 3.5 days and then headed for the mountains, but we could have stayed longer. The place was special. Not sure why but it had something to do with another miles-long deserted beach, great waves (we both tried surfing with success) and the cheap rum. Flor De Cana is made about 70 km south. Great beach times.
My hands are asleep as I'm typing on the iPhone, and we are headed to Easter mass. Thus, I leave you! We will share our times in the mountains and across the two major cities of Honduras next time. We promise the next lost in less than 3 weeks, unless Internet is spotty in Guatemala. Haha. We head to Rio Dulce, Guatemala, en la mañana!
Miss y'all!
Ciao!
CP JP
Holy jamoly! It's been like three weeks since our last post. I can only assume Japan's cities are clean an devoid of nuclear fallout, a sensible transfer of power has been agreed upon in Libya and the Braves are in first place heading for another title!!! Right, am I right? So, I'm wrong but our travels are still so right! Can anyone guess where lovely Joy is at this moment? Give up? Taking a much needed siesta after hiking through Honduran canyons and waterfalls all day, that's where! Haha.
If you've not followed the posts on facebook, we reached the northern border of Honduras where it joins Guatemala just before the holiest of Central American holidays, Semana Santa or Easter Week. We have posted up in a town called Copan Ruinas, and, as u may suspect, they are most famous for their incredible, Mayan Ruins. However, if u ask my lady, she will tell you that their street food is TOPS. To this point, even the street food in Americana Centro has been...uh...bland. In Copan the pork street tacos are stupendous, the homade ice cream is awesome, the pupusas (more El Salvadorian than Honduran but who cares) fantastic and the cinnamon, sugar drinks (ponche) are strait addictive. Plus, Joy found the best salsa ever, and even I agreed we should purchase our own jar. You know, for the bland times.
However, how did we get here? Where have we been since April 7th? The short answers are the beach, the mountains and two HUGE major cities with a couple small ones in between. We left Leon wanting to explore the north western beaches of Nicaragua before the holy week. During 4/17 thru 4/24 there we gonna be 3 million Nicas at the beaches celebrating Christ's resurrection and cold Tona! We hoped for a more tranquil setting and were not disappointed. The first beach we hit was Las Penitas, 40 clicks west of Leon. Wow! We've never been on a more deserted stretch of beach. 22km to the north and south and it was us, the local fisherman, a couple surfers, millions of shells and hundreds of bird species. For three and a half days we played in the surf (hours a day, we were like kids on summer vacation again) and explored a 20 km. barrier island with estuaries, mangroves, crocodiles and, during certain times of year, nesting sea turtles. Didn't spot Amy sea turtles, wrong time of year, but the birds and crocs were amazing. Joy, our guide and I took a boat 2km up the estuary and another 2km back and it was like being back in prehistoric times. No people, hot, humid, giant herons and crocs. So cool. Our guides little boat ran out of gas about ten minutes from shore, so we had to paddle back. It was hilarious. I wanted a discount, joy told me to shove it, and we were back to playing in the ocean in no time. Side note - super proud of my wife! Normally a bit shy in the water after nearly breaking her sternum body surfing in Coronado, CA, was swimming champ in waves twice as big in Las Penitas. Good job, honey!
Not finished with remote beach exportation, we jumped a couple buses north to another beach just below the El Salvadorian border called Zorros Beach. We heard rumor of a hostel in this area with beach front
cabins, vegetarian food, cold beer and an owner from San Francisco. A five hour bus ride and two cold cobs of corn served via bus window, and we were beach front at Rancho Tranqilo, Zorros Beach, Nicaragua.
A nice young man with shiny bits of glitter all over his face, body and feet checked us in. Julian, glitter man, said he'd been fillin in as owner and hotelier while the actual owner, Tina, was recovering from back surgery in Leon. Apparently, she was stringing more Xmas lights around the bar and took a tumble. Yikes! She cracked her back and her ribs and after meeting her (she returned that day and Julian took of after 1.5 months at the helm) I understood why this fall injured her so badly. She's a tiny person. And what she lacks in size makes up for in Tona and cigarette consumption. For normal people, Tina was probably terrifying, for us she was interesting in a here's-what-an-ex-hippie- computer-programmer-can-do-with-a- little-bit-of-dough-in-Nicaragua kind if way. It was impressive. She didn't rise before 11 am, subsided on smokes and Tona, but kept her place spick and span and the food tasty. We stayed 3.5 days and then headed for the mountains, but we could have stayed longer. The place was special. Not sure why but it had something to do with another miles-long deserted beach, great waves (we both tried surfing with success) and the cheap rum. Flor De Cana is made about 70 km south. Great beach times.
My hands are asleep as I'm typing on the iPhone, and we are headed to Easter mass. Thus, I leave you! We will share our times in the mountains and across the two major cities of Honduras next time. We promise the next lost in less than 3 weeks, unless Internet is spotty in Guatemala. Haha. We head to Rio Dulce, Guatemala, en la mañana!
Miss y'all!
Ciao!
CP JP
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Leon
We are getting ready right now to leave Leon where we have spent the last couple days. After spending six days in Granada, I was not too excited about spending more time in a city, but we really enjoyed our time here.
We arrived to the dusty hot bus lot in the Leon Wednesday afternoon. We decided to walk the mile and a half to the hostel. The area surrounding the bus stop was hot hot hot, dusty, reeked of rotten fruit and garbage and had about as much charm as a dentist office. Fortunately as we neared the city center beautiful historic churches and colonial buildings started to appear...
We managed to find a nice, clean, quiet hostel with a POOL that was only 20 bucks. Serious score.
We spent our first afternoon walking around to get our bearings on the city... much bigger than Granada -- almost twice as big, in fact. The city is pretty dingy, lots of garbage and the old buildings could use a serious scrub down, but interestingly, hardly any street dogs. Oh, and they seem to favor pizza rather than hot dogs in Leon.
Despite being rough around the edges, the city is very charming, filled with cultural, and a ton of students.
After eating pizza for dinner... pineapple and ham... pretty good actually, we headed back to our hostel to make a plan for the next day. We could head to a nearby volcano to sandboard... just like it sounds, snowboarding except on sand... or we could stay in town and check out museums and churches. We opted for the latter. A few years ago I would have jumped at the opportunity to do something like sand boarding, but to us it just sounded like a hot, expensive, and potentially dangerous endeavor. Why not hit some nice museums for a couple bucks.
Yesterday morning we visited the Centro de Arte, which houses an impressive collection of art including Pre-Columbian pottery, European classic pieces dating back to the 15th century, a selection of Picassos, and a large variety of contemporary Latin American art work, all surrounded by lush gardens ands flowing fountains. The museum was impressive by any standards, and for a dollar, an absolute steal.
In the afternoon, after retreating to our pool for a few hours, we decided to hit a couple more musuems.
First we visited the Ruben Dario museum. I might embarrass Chris and myself, but neither of us know much about Reuben Dario... I think we probably should. From our guide book we learned he is a revolutionary poet who is an important figure in Nicaraguan history.
The museum is housed in Dario"s former home. It"s laid out quite nicely and is well maintained, but because the exhibits are in Spanish, we had a difficult time understanding what each exhibit meant. We did understand that he is one of the most beloved heroes in Nicaragua. I honestly have never heard of a hero poet, so go Nicaragua.
The museum was free, which was nice. Chris and I are planning on reading up on Mr. Dario more. I would love to read some of his revolutionary poetry... almost forgot... his writing style changed the way people in Nicaragua speak and write... very interesting.
After the Dario museum we visited a museum dedicated to the heroes who fought for the Sandinistas during the civil war dating from the early 1900s up until the mid 1980s. Our tour guide Benito, spoke only Spanish, which was really hard at first, but surprisingly Chris and I caught on. The history of the Sandinistas is complicated, bloody, sad, and very interesting. The exhibits themselves featured graphic photos of FSLN soldiers who were killed in the war. Most of them were just kids. Most of the pictures in the museum were taken in Leon, and were easily recognizable to us. Crazy that 30 years ago the bustling city was a bloody war zone.
At the end of our tour our guide showed us a small laminated wanted poster. It was in Spanish, but we could understand that the kid in the picture was a FSLN soldier wanted by Somoza, the opposition leader. The person in the picture was a young kid in military fatigues. It was our guide, Benito. He explained to us how he was tortured... electrecuted, teeth pulled out... so horrible but he managed to survive and escape.
We surprisingly were allowed to take pictures in the musuem. I have a couple pics of homemade weapons created by Sandinista soldiers, and a few shots of a mural of FSLN heroes. They also have a whole wall dedicated to Che... Che is big here. OH, it is also election time in Nicaragua and every day there has been a huge FSLN political rally in the plaza. Really interesting. I cannot wait to read more about Nicaraguan history.
We capped off last night with a Toña on a roof top bar where we watched the sunset and then we headed back to the hostel for one last dip in the pool.
What a perfect day filled with learning and relaxing.
Today we are off to Las Peñitas beach, just north and west of Leon. We will spend a couple days there and then we are heading further north to an area called Los Zorros beach. So excited. Life could not be better.
We arrived to the dusty hot bus lot in the Leon Wednesday afternoon. We decided to walk the mile and a half to the hostel. The area surrounding the bus stop was hot hot hot, dusty, reeked of rotten fruit and garbage and had about as much charm as a dentist office. Fortunately as we neared the city center beautiful historic churches and colonial buildings started to appear...
We managed to find a nice, clean, quiet hostel with a POOL that was only 20 bucks. Serious score.
We spent our first afternoon walking around to get our bearings on the city... much bigger than Granada -- almost twice as big, in fact. The city is pretty dingy, lots of garbage and the old buildings could use a serious scrub down, but interestingly, hardly any street dogs. Oh, and they seem to favor pizza rather than hot dogs in Leon.
Despite being rough around the edges, the city is very charming, filled with cultural, and a ton of students.
After eating pizza for dinner... pineapple and ham... pretty good actually, we headed back to our hostel to make a plan for the next day. We could head to a nearby volcano to sandboard... just like it sounds, snowboarding except on sand... or we could stay in town and check out museums and churches. We opted for the latter. A few years ago I would have jumped at the opportunity to do something like sand boarding, but to us it just sounded like a hot, expensive, and potentially dangerous endeavor. Why not hit some nice museums for a couple bucks.
Yesterday morning we visited the Centro de Arte, which houses an impressive collection of art including Pre-Columbian pottery, European classic pieces dating back to the 15th century, a selection of Picassos, and a large variety of contemporary Latin American art work, all surrounded by lush gardens ands flowing fountains. The museum was impressive by any standards, and for a dollar, an absolute steal.
In the afternoon, after retreating to our pool for a few hours, we decided to hit a couple more musuems.
First we visited the Ruben Dario museum. I might embarrass Chris and myself, but neither of us know much about Reuben Dario... I think we probably should. From our guide book we learned he is a revolutionary poet who is an important figure in Nicaraguan history.
The museum is housed in Dario"s former home. It"s laid out quite nicely and is well maintained, but because the exhibits are in Spanish, we had a difficult time understanding what each exhibit meant. We did understand that he is one of the most beloved heroes in Nicaragua. I honestly have never heard of a hero poet, so go Nicaragua.
The museum was free, which was nice. Chris and I are planning on reading up on Mr. Dario more. I would love to read some of his revolutionary poetry... almost forgot... his writing style changed the way people in Nicaragua speak and write... very interesting.
After the Dario museum we visited a museum dedicated to the heroes who fought for the Sandinistas during the civil war dating from the early 1900s up until the mid 1980s. Our tour guide Benito, spoke only Spanish, which was really hard at first, but surprisingly Chris and I caught on. The history of the Sandinistas is complicated, bloody, sad, and very interesting. The exhibits themselves featured graphic photos of FSLN soldiers who were killed in the war. Most of them were just kids. Most of the pictures in the museum were taken in Leon, and were easily recognizable to us. Crazy that 30 years ago the bustling city was a bloody war zone.
At the end of our tour our guide showed us a small laminated wanted poster. It was in Spanish, but we could understand that the kid in the picture was a FSLN soldier wanted by Somoza, the opposition leader. The person in the picture was a young kid in military fatigues. It was our guide, Benito. He explained to us how he was tortured... electrecuted, teeth pulled out... so horrible but he managed to survive and escape.
We surprisingly were allowed to take pictures in the musuem. I have a couple pics of homemade weapons created by Sandinista soldiers, and a few shots of a mural of FSLN heroes. They also have a whole wall dedicated to Che... Che is big here. OH, it is also election time in Nicaragua and every day there has been a huge FSLN political rally in the plaza. Really interesting. I cannot wait to read more about Nicaraguan history.
We capped off last night with a Toña on a roof top bar where we watched the sunset and then we headed back to the hostel for one last dip in the pool.
What a perfect day filled with learning and relaxing.
Today we are off to Las Peñitas beach, just north and west of Leon. We will spend a couple days there and then we are heading further north to an area called Los Zorros beach. So excited. Life could not be better.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Mando & Eric, We Miss You
Hola Kids,
It´s 8:35, do you know where your Joysie is? That´s right, in the dang pool. We´ve been hangin´¨Granada-style¨ for the past several days and that means pool time. This city is hot, boyz and girlz. You need a pool and the Hostel Oasis provides. Thus, you are stuck with me for this week´s post.
Notice the title of said blog. We miss our buddies. Eric & Mando rock to travel with in domestic or foreign countries. (Even though bro is afraid of getting scammed by the locals at every turn...haha). They are some of the only people we know who can survive 15-plus-hour travel days via plane, taxi, boat, bus, etc., stifling heat, no-water-waterfall hikes, steep volcanoe hikes, more taxi rides, more heat and the general alertness that comes with international travel. All four of us do it with mostly a smile, and we had a blast.
I wanted to fake-scam Eric right as he left baggage claim, but the bastard was onto me. Joy and I were spotted immediately as those dudes exited the termial at Managua International. We were staying about 50km south of Managua on Isla Ometepe, a two-voclanoe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (i believe the largest lake in Central America), and the hotelier, Ryan Cassidy, from Finca Mystica our Isla Ometepe hotel, set us up with a taxi ride to the boat launch. A taxi is a great way to welcome your incoming family members to Nicaragua, as you skip hours long bus rides & scorching midday heat. Plus, Mandy was psyched to sit shotgun and impress Martin, our cab driver, with her fluent Spanish. Joy and I were excited to travel with a Spanish speaker again, and Eric was in a general state of shock feeling certain Martin was taking us to some remote alley in Managua where he and his epidermis would meet the business end of Martin´s shank. We were only too glad to disappoint me brother, as we arrived to the boat launch in San Jorge. A quick 45 minute boat ride later, and we were aboard another taxi to Finca Mystica at the base of Maderas on Isla Ometepe.
The proprietors of Finca Mystica, Ryan & Angie, lived a better part of their most recent lives in Steamboat Springs, CO, and have only recently opened their 4-cabin hotel January 2011. We felt fortunate to be some of their first guests, and the experience was amazing. Mandy was in Xanadu. Angie was a vegetarian, so all of her meals included more than one veggie option. AND they were huge on sustainability, environmental conservation and resource conservation...uhhhh...yea...Mandy likes that too. No flushing unless you take a duce, shower at night if at all (there´s a lake down the road, man) and each meal was cooked mostly from food stuffs grown on the property.
In our short 4 nights & 3.5 days at Finca we came to love the Island, Ryan & Angie, the local people and the volcanoes that loomed to the west & north each day. What follows is the account of that stay and our travels to San Juan Del Sur & Granada.
Day 1 - arrival, beers (Tona), star cicle with the brightest sky any of us had seen since traveling to Hawaii in 2005, baby fresh sheets and a good night sleep after a long-ass travel day.
Day 2 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, waterfall hike (it had no water and proved to be the hottest day we spent on the island), jump in lake, all is good, dinner and local fiesta. Ryan and Angie invited us to a local Reggaetone dance at the junior high. This was a fundraiser AND the 5th grade graduation. The entire town of Meredia was to attend, and we had our party hats strapped to the chin. HOWEVER, the fiesta turned bunk as too many hombres and not enough damas showed up, so we spent the evening sharing mass Tona with the locals at some random cantina. 15 giant beers = $12. Eric and I both fought to pay that bad boy...haha.
Day 3 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, KAYAK around the lake to the Rio Istlan and saw mucho birds. I almost had a great picture of the magestic heron until our other boat mates decided to offroad the kayak into the marsh scarring all but the mosquitoes from there to Managua. We enjoyed mass Tona on the beach at Carlitos, more food to die for at Finca Mystica and then to bed for the mornings Volcanoe hike. 7 am bizzles.
Day 4 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee and a 65-year-old guide with a 24-year-old wife striding up the road to lead us happy suckers on a 16km hike up a 4,000 foot volcanoe. We started from 100 feet, so let´s call it a 3,900-foot ascent. After our near heat exhaustion on the 3km waterfall hike, we all thought our hours were numbered. BUT, MAN, we couldn´t have hiked this volcanoe any better. Mando scampered up the slope, Eric waltzed up the ridge, Joy jogged through the jungle and I prowled the pinnacle. Shoot, the only one who didn´t make it was the guide´s much younger, 24-year-old wife. Apparently, asthma does not suit a moutain climber. Seriously, she was an asthmatic and she hoped to join her 65-year-old, chian smoking, immortal up this and the other volcanoe 4-5 times per week. I think not. By the way...we drank mass Tona upon strolling back to camp AND Eric & I had enough left in the tank to do some Ometepe-style laundry in the lake before dinner. We´re talking rocks, soap and lake water just as the local do.
Day 5 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, pay the tab and bid bien viaje to Ryan and Angie. Couldn´t have had a better time for our first several days together, and we decided not only would we do Granada BUT we would mix in a bit of beach time in San Juan del sur. A short boat ride, complete with a Spanish-viewing of the American movie classic Sparticus, and we were cruising at 60km per hour in a taxi to San Juan Del Sur. We decided posted up and bedded down in the Gran Oceano. After suffering a brief panic attack, numerous shakes, cold sweats and siezures over the cost ($45 per night per couple), I relaxed and was able to enjoy the AC, pool and sweet hot shower. Shit, the water was too hot. I had to ask that it be turned down. WOW! We looked into a sunset cruise for the next day, bought some Tona and relaxed by the pool until heading out to dinner & ice cream. It was to bed fairly early, as we anticipated a long day of beach sitting, relaxing, sunset cruising and, of course, Tona drinking.
Day 6 - breakfast, not as many veggie options, no french press coffee, BUT FREE and included in the room cost. Our original sunset cruise was auctioned off to some private party for, no doubt, more than our $10 per person price, and we were forced to look for other boatmen. No shortage, and we found a couple ready to take us ´criusing´ at 2 pm. We´d be back by 7 pm, and they boasted snorkling, something our other cruise company did not offer. We felt good and went down to the beach to drink Tona. Our boat left at 2 pm on the button thus beginning our cruise. Turns out, our cruise, looked much more like 2 local fisherman taking 4 tourists out on the afternoon leg of their normal fishing day. We helped them bait hooks, we helped them reel in tuna & mackrel, we baited more hooks and fished for snappper, the sea was rough, we trolled slowly and we all wondered ´when do we snorkle.´ AND then we got to the snorkle spot. No joke, about 1000 meters off shore, rough seas, couldn´t see a damn thing and our fisherman dude jumped off the boat with a mask and some sort of hook. He said it was for lobster, but Mando, Eric & Joy agreed it was a shark deterant and opted out of the snorkle portion of the trip. I jumped in, followed our armed guide around the boat and, though not speaking much of the other´s language, decided that, without visability, snorkling not much fun. So, we jumped back in the boat, gutted about 20 fish and make tracks back our beach just in time for sunset. Not exactly as advertised, and I don´t think Mandy bargined for fishing & high seas, but an experience nonetheless. Plus, I got to keep a Tuna and had it cooked up for $4 at the restaurant of choice that night. Pretty funny walking around town with a plastic bag of Tuna.
Day 7 - breakfast, no options, leftovers from yesterday, half-cup of coffee, butter, no jam but the pool looked nice. We traveled mightly to Granada this day in a chariot of the gods...just kidding...it was a busted up taxi, BUT only $10 per person for like 40km. WOW! Joy and Mando bargined like crazy for that deal, and Eric & I said ´thank you.´ Arrived to the hostel Oasis in one hour, and were greeted with another pool, our own rooms and our own bathrooms. NICE. Decided we should purchase more Tona, immediately. We hung poolside, grabbed some hotdogs for lunch...yea, HD´s are big down here and plotted dinner as well as our activities for tomorrow. Those activities included pool sitting, walking ´round town, Tona drinking and a kick-butt tour to an active volcanoe, complete with hiking, caves, bats and the promise of LAVA. (side note - we found the Mombacho Cigar Factory this day and decided it might be one of the only places in Central America that my Dad might feel comfortable...they roll their own stogies, serve them poolside with scotch, Mombochitas (skantly dressed ladies) and Playboys for reading...oh yea)
Day 8 - no breakfast, free coffee, smattering of street food around the market, hot walk around town, poolside before Volcanoe tour. The Volcanoe tour was everything the sunset cruise was NOT. We hiked up the live Volcanoe Masaya and could barely get to the top because of the noxious gas spitting from the crater. We hiked the inactive portion to get a better view, watch the sunset and hike down to the caves where a mass exodus of Friut, Nectar and Insect Bats were departing for the night´s hunt. COOL. All this before seeing the eery glow of lava from the Volcanoe´s heart as the night blackened. EVEN COOLER. (side note - you can go to youtube and search Volcanoe Masaya Eruption and watch sick footage of this Volcanoe erupting with tourists videotaping in 2001). Check it out. We enjoyed our last dinner out, a little less Tona, as Mando & Eric had to get up at 4:15 am, and talked into the night about all the great times in Nicaragua AND the fact none of us got scammed for money, passports our lives. Take that US State Department Web site. Our chatting was soon interrupted by some high-school-sponsored spring break, so we turned in at about 11 pm.
Day 9 - Mando & Eric depart. Chris & Joy are sad, so Chris takes Joy to a baseball games where we have Tona, some kind of nacho and pig-foot potato salad, wrapped in a banana leaf. Yippee.
Until next time...Ciao!
CP
It´s 8:35, do you know where your Joysie is? That´s right, in the dang pool. We´ve been hangin´¨Granada-style¨ for the past several days and that means pool time. This city is hot, boyz and girlz. You need a pool and the Hostel Oasis provides. Thus, you are stuck with me for this week´s post.
Notice the title of said blog. We miss our buddies. Eric & Mando rock to travel with in domestic or foreign countries. (Even though bro is afraid of getting scammed by the locals at every turn...haha). They are some of the only people we know who can survive 15-plus-hour travel days via plane, taxi, boat, bus, etc., stifling heat, no-water-waterfall hikes, steep volcanoe hikes, more taxi rides, more heat and the general alertness that comes with international travel. All four of us do it with mostly a smile, and we had a blast.
I wanted to fake-scam Eric right as he left baggage claim, but the bastard was onto me. Joy and I were spotted immediately as those dudes exited the termial at Managua International. We were staying about 50km south of Managua on Isla Ometepe, a two-voclanoe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (i believe the largest lake in Central America), and the hotelier, Ryan Cassidy, from Finca Mystica our Isla Ometepe hotel, set us up with a taxi ride to the boat launch. A taxi is a great way to welcome your incoming family members to Nicaragua, as you skip hours long bus rides & scorching midday heat. Plus, Mandy was psyched to sit shotgun and impress Martin, our cab driver, with her fluent Spanish. Joy and I were excited to travel with a Spanish speaker again, and Eric was in a general state of shock feeling certain Martin was taking us to some remote alley in Managua where he and his epidermis would meet the business end of Martin´s shank. We were only too glad to disappoint me brother, as we arrived to the boat launch in San Jorge. A quick 45 minute boat ride later, and we were aboard another taxi to Finca Mystica at the base of Maderas on Isla Ometepe.
The proprietors of Finca Mystica, Ryan & Angie, lived a better part of their most recent lives in Steamboat Springs, CO, and have only recently opened their 4-cabin hotel January 2011. We felt fortunate to be some of their first guests, and the experience was amazing. Mandy was in Xanadu. Angie was a vegetarian, so all of her meals included more than one veggie option. AND they were huge on sustainability, environmental conservation and resource conservation...uhhhh...yea...Mandy likes that too. No flushing unless you take a duce, shower at night if at all (there´s a lake down the road, man) and each meal was cooked mostly from food stuffs grown on the property.
In our short 4 nights & 3.5 days at Finca we came to love the Island, Ryan & Angie, the local people and the volcanoes that loomed to the west & north each day. What follows is the account of that stay and our travels to San Juan Del Sur & Granada.
Day 1 - arrival, beers (Tona), star cicle with the brightest sky any of us had seen since traveling to Hawaii in 2005, baby fresh sheets and a good night sleep after a long-ass travel day.
Day 2 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, waterfall hike (it had no water and proved to be the hottest day we spent on the island), jump in lake, all is good, dinner and local fiesta. Ryan and Angie invited us to a local Reggaetone dance at the junior high. This was a fundraiser AND the 5th grade graduation. The entire town of Meredia was to attend, and we had our party hats strapped to the chin. HOWEVER, the fiesta turned bunk as too many hombres and not enough damas showed up, so we spent the evening sharing mass Tona with the locals at some random cantina. 15 giant beers = $12. Eric and I both fought to pay that bad boy...haha.
Day 3 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, KAYAK around the lake to the Rio Istlan and saw mucho birds. I almost had a great picture of the magestic heron until our other boat mates decided to offroad the kayak into the marsh scarring all but the mosquitoes from there to Managua. We enjoyed mass Tona on the beach at Carlitos, more food to die for at Finca Mystica and then to bed for the mornings Volcanoe hike. 7 am bizzles.
Day 4 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee and a 65-year-old guide with a 24-year-old wife striding up the road to lead us happy suckers on a 16km hike up a 4,000 foot volcanoe. We started from 100 feet, so let´s call it a 3,900-foot ascent. After our near heat exhaustion on the 3km waterfall hike, we all thought our hours were numbered. BUT, MAN, we couldn´t have hiked this volcanoe any better. Mando scampered up the slope, Eric waltzed up the ridge, Joy jogged through the jungle and I prowled the pinnacle. Shoot, the only one who didn´t make it was the guide´s much younger, 24-year-old wife. Apparently, asthma does not suit a moutain climber. Seriously, she was an asthmatic and she hoped to join her 65-year-old, chian smoking, immortal up this and the other volcanoe 4-5 times per week. I think not. By the way...we drank mass Tona upon strolling back to camp AND Eric & I had enough left in the tank to do some Ometepe-style laundry in the lake before dinner. We´re talking rocks, soap and lake water just as the local do.
Day 5 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, pay the tab and bid bien viaje to Ryan and Angie. Couldn´t have had a better time for our first several days together, and we decided not only would we do Granada BUT we would mix in a bit of beach time in San Juan del sur. A short boat ride, complete with a Spanish-viewing of the American movie classic Sparticus, and we were cruising at 60km per hour in a taxi to San Juan Del Sur. We decided posted up and bedded down in the Gran Oceano. After suffering a brief panic attack, numerous shakes, cold sweats and siezures over the cost ($45 per night per couple), I relaxed and was able to enjoy the AC, pool and sweet hot shower. Shit, the water was too hot. I had to ask that it be turned down. WOW! We looked into a sunset cruise for the next day, bought some Tona and relaxed by the pool until heading out to dinner & ice cream. It was to bed fairly early, as we anticipated a long day of beach sitting, relaxing, sunset cruising and, of course, Tona drinking.
Day 6 - breakfast, not as many veggie options, no french press coffee, BUT FREE and included in the room cost. Our original sunset cruise was auctioned off to some private party for, no doubt, more than our $10 per person price, and we were forced to look for other boatmen. No shortage, and we found a couple ready to take us ´criusing´ at 2 pm. We´d be back by 7 pm, and they boasted snorkling, something our other cruise company did not offer. We felt good and went down to the beach to drink Tona. Our boat left at 2 pm on the button thus beginning our cruise. Turns out, our cruise, looked much more like 2 local fisherman taking 4 tourists out on the afternoon leg of their normal fishing day. We helped them bait hooks, we helped them reel in tuna & mackrel, we baited more hooks and fished for snappper, the sea was rough, we trolled slowly and we all wondered ´when do we snorkle.´ AND then we got to the snorkle spot. No joke, about 1000 meters off shore, rough seas, couldn´t see a damn thing and our fisherman dude jumped off the boat with a mask and some sort of hook. He said it was for lobster, but Mando, Eric & Joy agreed it was a shark deterant and opted out of the snorkle portion of the trip. I jumped in, followed our armed guide around the boat and, though not speaking much of the other´s language, decided that, without visability, snorkling not much fun. So, we jumped back in the boat, gutted about 20 fish and make tracks back our beach just in time for sunset. Not exactly as advertised, and I don´t think Mandy bargined for fishing & high seas, but an experience nonetheless. Plus, I got to keep a Tuna and had it cooked up for $4 at the restaurant of choice that night. Pretty funny walking around town with a plastic bag of Tuna.
Day 7 - breakfast, no options, leftovers from yesterday, half-cup of coffee, butter, no jam but the pool looked nice. We traveled mightly to Granada this day in a chariot of the gods...just kidding...it was a busted up taxi, BUT only $10 per person for like 40km. WOW! Joy and Mando bargined like crazy for that deal, and Eric & I said ´thank you.´ Arrived to the hostel Oasis in one hour, and were greeted with another pool, our own rooms and our own bathrooms. NICE. Decided we should purchase more Tona, immediately. We hung poolside, grabbed some hotdogs for lunch...yea, HD´s are big down here and plotted dinner as well as our activities for tomorrow. Those activities included pool sitting, walking ´round town, Tona drinking and a kick-butt tour to an active volcanoe, complete with hiking, caves, bats and the promise of LAVA. (side note - we found the Mombacho Cigar Factory this day and decided it might be one of the only places in Central America that my Dad might feel comfortable...they roll their own stogies, serve them poolside with scotch, Mombochitas (skantly dressed ladies) and Playboys for reading...oh yea)
Day 8 - no breakfast, free coffee, smattering of street food around the market, hot walk around town, poolside before Volcanoe tour. The Volcanoe tour was everything the sunset cruise was NOT. We hiked up the live Volcanoe Masaya and could barely get to the top because of the noxious gas spitting from the crater. We hiked the inactive portion to get a better view, watch the sunset and hike down to the caves where a mass exodus of Friut, Nectar and Insect Bats were departing for the night´s hunt. COOL. All this before seeing the eery glow of lava from the Volcanoe´s heart as the night blackened. EVEN COOLER. (side note - you can go to youtube and search Volcanoe Masaya Eruption and watch sick footage of this Volcanoe erupting with tourists videotaping in 2001). Check it out. We enjoyed our last dinner out, a little less Tona, as Mando & Eric had to get up at 4:15 am, and talked into the night about all the great times in Nicaragua AND the fact none of us got scammed for money, passports our lives. Take that US State Department Web site. Our chatting was soon interrupted by some high-school-sponsored spring break, so we turned in at about 11 pm.
Day 9 - Mando & Eric depart. Chris & Joy are sad, so Chris takes Joy to a baseball games where we have Tona, some kind of nacho and pig-foot potato salad, wrapped in a banana leaf. Yippee.
Until next time...Ciao!
CP
Friday, March 25, 2011
A Day in the Life
We left our jungle cabin in Costa Rica more than two weeks ago so it´s high time I recount our time volunteering...
We posted a lot of pictures on Facebook of all the cute and fuzzy critters we worked with at the Jaguar Rescue Center. This definitely was a highlight of volunteering, but our time in Costa Rica wasn´t all baby sloths and monkeys. We worked our asses off, faced the challenges of living off the grid, paid ridiculous amounts of money for basic groceries, and at times, were genuinely concerned for our safety.
To paint you a picture of our time in Puerto Viejo, I´ll walk you through a typical day in the life of Joy and Chris´s time in the jungle.
Each morning at 5:30 a.m. we were awakened by cacophony of howling monkeys, barking dogs, and crowing roosters. Annoying? Yes. An effective alarm clock? Absolutely.
We´d lie in bed until about 6 a.m., convincing ourselves that we could get a few extra minutes of sleep, which never happened. We´d withdraw ourselves from our mosquito-net coccoon and prepare for the day. First we´d boil water to make coffee using our weird coffee sock, then we´d open the shutters in our kitchen to welcome in the morning sights and sounds of the jungle.
We´d enjoy our coffee and breakfast on our deck each morning. We were greeted by toucans roosting in the trees in the distance, lorakeets squawking, and howler monkeys calling out from the emerald green tree tops. Oh, and we always got a kick out of neighbors who had no problem singing and talking loudly at 6 a.m.!
After breakfast we´d pack up our lunch, our garbage (may I remind you, you can not flush toilet paper down toilets in most of C.A. so all t.p. goes in the garbage... sweet), and recycling from the night before and head down the mountain for our 25- minute walk to work.
We prided ourselves on our promptness. We were to be at the center at 8 a.m. and usually arrived 15 minutes early. The minute we arrived at work we´d throw down our back packs, and start the daily grind.
In the morning we´d grab a rake and start cleaning up the jungle leaves in the yard, a Sisyphusian task that we nonetheless found ourselves enjoying and apparently we were pretty good at it too -- is raking a viable skill to add to my resume??
If we weren´t raking in the morning, we were cleaning out animal enclosures. This was actually the first chore we did at the center... First day we met our super cool and chill boss, Joel; he told us to grab a rake, some disinfectant, and a few rags, and showed us the sloth enclosure.
In addition to two, three-toed sloths, living in the enclosure were a five-foot iguana and a rather large and one-winged hawk named Wingie. Entering into a cage with a bunch of wild animals was rather daunting, but no better way to learn than by diving right in, no?
After cleaning and spiffing up all the cages for the first tour at 9:30 a.m. we either continued raking for TWO hours, baby sat sloths, or kept the baby monkeys company.
Because the larger female monkeys preferred male humans (the females are alphas and considered human females a threat) Chris was on monkey patrol more often than I was. I was OK with this. I was a supreme sloth baby sitter. I know what most of you are thinking... how hard could it be to baby sit sloths?? Well, let me tell you it`s rough!
Two kinds of sloths live in Costa Rica, two-toed and three-toes sloths. Three-toed sloths are very docile and slow moving. They never attack humans and even a full-grown wild three-toed would pose no threat to a human. Two-toed sloths on the other hand are a whole other story! They have strong claws and razor sharp teeth that they use to defend themselves. They hiss, and move surprisingly quickly. Now imagine trying to pick up one of these bad boys using only your bare hands and a blanket!
At the end of our three weeks volunteering I was a master sloth wrangler. I learned quickly who were the trouble makers. Little Lola, a six-month old, five-pound two-toer caused the most problems. She was fast and curious and did not like being messed with. Shocking that such a small cute critter could be so terrifying! Then there was Andrea, a heaping chunk of a sloth who was ready to be released into the wild. During the day she´d sleep lazily in the sun, but when it came time to bring her into her night time enclosure she was PISSED! I was never able to wrangle her myself.
So while I was watching sloths, Chris spent a lot of time with the 12 baby howler monkeys. These little guys and gals were quite a handful! They´d crawl all over Chris´s head, constantly attempt to escape, and thought nothing of pooping and peeing on him! He managed to adapt quickly and in just a few days was best chums with the two biggest monkeys.
When the last tours of the day were over at 12:30 p.m., it was baby monkey jungle play time. The monkeys knew when it was play time and would gladly jump on the shoulders of volunteers to head out to their jungle tree.
Chris and I got to do this several times and it truly was an amazing experience. One day a wild monkey climbed down a tree, sat in my lap and started eating fruit from a tupperware container! Turns out she had been released into the wild a few months ago and was still used to humans, which hopefully will change, since trusting humans could lead to trouble.
So once the monkeys were out in the jungle, we`d head back to the center and clean enclosures, feed the animals, and make sure everything was ready for the next day... then we´d head home dirty, stinky and sweaty and prepare to start the whole thing over again.
So that´s about it for a typical day at the center. We did this four days a week for 8-9 hours a day. Would I do it again? In a second. In addition to working hands on with animals, the people we worked with were awesome: our fellow volunteers, our boss Joel and his buddy Eugene, and the other staff members who worked their asses off.
Chris and I did have mixed feelings about Puerto Viejo. Our mountain cabin was beautiful and I grew to appreciate the peace and tranquility of living deep in the jungle. Having very sweet considerate neighbors who went out of their way to watch out for us was also nice. What wasn`t so cool was the combo of high crime and high prices in the surrounding area. The two just don´t mix.
So that´s about it for our volunteer experience. It left a huge impression on us and will definitely be a higlight of our trip.
We really need to be better about posting on our blog more often. I feel like I´m leaving out so many stories from Costa Rica. Who knows, maybe we´ll write a short story about our experience.
Chris has posted about our last few weeks in Nicaragua, so we´re pretty caught up... we´re heading to Leon tomorrow and then will spend a few days on the isolated beaches in NW Nicaragua. Have I mentioned how much I love peace and quiet? :)
Adios mis amigos!!!
We posted a lot of pictures on Facebook of all the cute and fuzzy critters we worked with at the Jaguar Rescue Center. This definitely was a highlight of volunteering, but our time in Costa Rica wasn´t all baby sloths and monkeys. We worked our asses off, faced the challenges of living off the grid, paid ridiculous amounts of money for basic groceries, and at times, were genuinely concerned for our safety.
To paint you a picture of our time in Puerto Viejo, I´ll walk you through a typical day in the life of Joy and Chris´s time in the jungle.
Each morning at 5:30 a.m. we were awakened by cacophony of howling monkeys, barking dogs, and crowing roosters. Annoying? Yes. An effective alarm clock? Absolutely.
We´d lie in bed until about 6 a.m., convincing ourselves that we could get a few extra minutes of sleep, which never happened. We´d withdraw ourselves from our mosquito-net coccoon and prepare for the day. First we´d boil water to make coffee using our weird coffee sock, then we´d open the shutters in our kitchen to welcome in the morning sights and sounds of the jungle.
We´d enjoy our coffee and breakfast on our deck each morning. We were greeted by toucans roosting in the trees in the distance, lorakeets squawking, and howler monkeys calling out from the emerald green tree tops. Oh, and we always got a kick out of neighbors who had no problem singing and talking loudly at 6 a.m.!
After breakfast we´d pack up our lunch, our garbage (may I remind you, you can not flush toilet paper down toilets in most of C.A. so all t.p. goes in the garbage... sweet), and recycling from the night before and head down the mountain for our 25- minute walk to work.
We prided ourselves on our promptness. We were to be at the center at 8 a.m. and usually arrived 15 minutes early. The minute we arrived at work we´d throw down our back packs, and start the daily grind.
In the morning we´d grab a rake and start cleaning up the jungle leaves in the yard, a Sisyphusian task that we nonetheless found ourselves enjoying and apparently we were pretty good at it too -- is raking a viable skill to add to my resume??
If we weren´t raking in the morning, we were cleaning out animal enclosures. This was actually the first chore we did at the center... First day we met our super cool and chill boss, Joel; he told us to grab a rake, some disinfectant, and a few rags, and showed us the sloth enclosure.
In addition to two, three-toed sloths, living in the enclosure were a five-foot iguana and a rather large and one-winged hawk named Wingie. Entering into a cage with a bunch of wild animals was rather daunting, but no better way to learn than by diving right in, no?
After cleaning and spiffing up all the cages for the first tour at 9:30 a.m. we either continued raking for TWO hours, baby sat sloths, or kept the baby monkeys company.
Because the larger female monkeys preferred male humans (the females are alphas and considered human females a threat) Chris was on monkey patrol more often than I was. I was OK with this. I was a supreme sloth baby sitter. I know what most of you are thinking... how hard could it be to baby sit sloths?? Well, let me tell you it`s rough!
Two kinds of sloths live in Costa Rica, two-toed and three-toes sloths. Three-toed sloths are very docile and slow moving. They never attack humans and even a full-grown wild three-toed would pose no threat to a human. Two-toed sloths on the other hand are a whole other story! They have strong claws and razor sharp teeth that they use to defend themselves. They hiss, and move surprisingly quickly. Now imagine trying to pick up one of these bad boys using only your bare hands and a blanket!
At the end of our three weeks volunteering I was a master sloth wrangler. I learned quickly who were the trouble makers. Little Lola, a six-month old, five-pound two-toer caused the most problems. She was fast and curious and did not like being messed with. Shocking that such a small cute critter could be so terrifying! Then there was Andrea, a heaping chunk of a sloth who was ready to be released into the wild. During the day she´d sleep lazily in the sun, but when it came time to bring her into her night time enclosure she was PISSED! I was never able to wrangle her myself.
So while I was watching sloths, Chris spent a lot of time with the 12 baby howler monkeys. These little guys and gals were quite a handful! They´d crawl all over Chris´s head, constantly attempt to escape, and thought nothing of pooping and peeing on him! He managed to adapt quickly and in just a few days was best chums with the two biggest monkeys.
When the last tours of the day were over at 12:30 p.m., it was baby monkey jungle play time. The monkeys knew when it was play time and would gladly jump on the shoulders of volunteers to head out to their jungle tree.
Chris and I got to do this several times and it truly was an amazing experience. One day a wild monkey climbed down a tree, sat in my lap and started eating fruit from a tupperware container! Turns out she had been released into the wild a few months ago and was still used to humans, which hopefully will change, since trusting humans could lead to trouble.
So once the monkeys were out in the jungle, we`d head back to the center and clean enclosures, feed the animals, and make sure everything was ready for the next day... then we´d head home dirty, stinky and sweaty and prepare to start the whole thing over again.
So that´s about it for a typical day at the center. We did this four days a week for 8-9 hours a day. Would I do it again? In a second. In addition to working hands on with animals, the people we worked with were awesome: our fellow volunteers, our boss Joel and his buddy Eugene, and the other staff members who worked their asses off.
Chris and I did have mixed feelings about Puerto Viejo. Our mountain cabin was beautiful and I grew to appreciate the peace and tranquility of living deep in the jungle. Having very sweet considerate neighbors who went out of their way to watch out for us was also nice. What wasn`t so cool was the combo of high crime and high prices in the surrounding area. The two just don´t mix.
So that´s about it for our volunteer experience. It left a huge impression on us and will definitely be a higlight of our trip.
We really need to be better about posting on our blog more often. I feel like I´m leaving out so many stories from Costa Rica. Who knows, maybe we´ll write a short story about our experience.
Chris has posted about our last few weeks in Nicaragua, so we´re pretty caught up... we´re heading to Leon tomorrow and then will spend a few days on the isolated beaches in NW Nicaragua. Have I mentioned how much I love peace and quiet? :)
Adios mis amigos!!!
The Best and The Worst
We´re in Managua right now getting ready to head to the airport to meet Mandy and Eric, who will be in Nicaragua for a little more than a week. Our plan is to spend four nights hiking, maybe climbing a volcano, visiting waterfalls and relaxing in Isla Ometepe, and then we´re heading to Granada for four nights. We´re so excited to see these guys! We´re gonna have a blast. Unfortuanately, Poor Mando and Eric are gonna have a long travel day... they´ll get off a plane, get into a cab for a 2 hour ride to the ferry dock, then get on a ferry to the island, which will take an hour, and then get into another cab for a bumpy bumpy hour-long ride to the cabins where we are staying. I´m sure it´ll be worth it though!
So... back to Managua. We´d heard bad bad things about the city ... high crime ... dirty, etc. We had no idea how the city was laid out so we picked a hotel based on Trip Advisor reviews. The price was right at $30 and it had a pool. We arrived at the Managua bus station after a very very easy ride from Rivas. We had been told the cab ride would be $10 but the driver tried to charge us $20! What? That´s a lot of money for us! We eventually talked the guy down to $15, but still. Our hotel was far away from the city center and the airport. I was a little disappointed with our choice. Once we got our hotel we were pleasantly surprised. The place is in a quiet residential area, is very quaint and clean and has a fabulous pool. Oh, and we have cable, which is a treat!
We did have two very different and interesting culinary experiences yesterday. The first meal was, with out a doubt, the WORST meal we have had in our entire trip. Chris and I are honestly relieved that we didn´t get horribly horribly ill!
We hadn´t eaten much all day and just wanted something quick and cheap for lunch. There were no restaurants open so we headed toward the super market. In front of the market was a concession stand looking place selling "enchiladas." Sounded good to us. We ordered two for a total price of 30 Cordobas ($1.50). To our horror, the woman opened up a metal cabinet, pulled out two room-temperature fried tortilla things. She covered them with coleslaw and a soggy tomato piece. She then proceeded to clean off two dirty forks by pouring a cup of water on them and rubbing them with her hands. We should´ve walked away then and there, but we were gluttons for punishment. She handed us the two fried masses and we prepared ourselves to eat the horrible things. They were worse than they looked. Trying to crack open the fried tortilla was like cracking open a crab shell, once we did open it we were greeted by some stringy mystery meat and dry rice. We didn´t even bother with the weird white slaw and tomato.
Honestly, I can´t believe we finished eating the fried nightmares but we did and the experience will stick with us for a long long time.
Fortunately at dinner we had probably the best meal of the trip, and ironically, it cost almost the same as the worst.
We weren´t very hungry last night after the trauma with the football enchiladas, but we had to eat. Chris remembered seeing a sign down the street from our hotel for Nacatamales -- normal tamales except larger and served in a banana leaf. We decided to check it out. Walking at night near our hotel was not a problem, which was a huge relief. We found the sign for Nacatamales. It was posted on the porch of someone´s home. We didn´t want to disturb the family, and we were about to walk away when a man with one leg on crutches came out and welcomed us into his home.
The restaurant was nothing more than two plastic tables and four chairs in the entry way of the family´s home. Two shy little girls smiled at us from the kitchen and their grandfather waved at us from his chair in the living room. We ordered two tamales and two gaseosas, the specialty of the house. We made small talk with the little girls and their sweet cowboy-hat wearing grandpa. The cook of the restaurant was the grandma. She happily cooked us up our food and treated us as if we were guests in her house. Then she brought out the food. WOW. The delicious tamales were perfectly cooked and filled with stewed chicken. We felt honored to have been welcomed into the family´s home when they were clearly not prepared to serve food. We will never forget this experience, just as we unfortunately won´t forget our enchilada experience earlier in the day.
All in all, other than the expensive cab, we´ve enjoyed our short time at our hotel and our quaint neighborhood in Managua. If we ever come back to the city, we´ll definitely be staying at this hotel (Hotel D´lido of anyone is ever in the area and needs a cool place to stay!).
That´s it for now. Off to the airport.
¡Ciao!
So... back to Managua. We´d heard bad bad things about the city ... high crime ... dirty, etc. We had no idea how the city was laid out so we picked a hotel based on Trip Advisor reviews. The price was right at $30 and it had a pool. We arrived at the Managua bus station after a very very easy ride from Rivas. We had been told the cab ride would be $10 but the driver tried to charge us $20! What? That´s a lot of money for us! We eventually talked the guy down to $15, but still. Our hotel was far away from the city center and the airport. I was a little disappointed with our choice. Once we got our hotel we were pleasantly surprised. The place is in a quiet residential area, is very quaint and clean and has a fabulous pool. Oh, and we have cable, which is a treat!
We did have two very different and interesting culinary experiences yesterday. The first meal was, with out a doubt, the WORST meal we have had in our entire trip. Chris and I are honestly relieved that we didn´t get horribly horribly ill!
We hadn´t eaten much all day and just wanted something quick and cheap for lunch. There were no restaurants open so we headed toward the super market. In front of the market was a concession stand looking place selling "enchiladas." Sounded good to us. We ordered two for a total price of 30 Cordobas ($1.50). To our horror, the woman opened up a metal cabinet, pulled out two room-temperature fried tortilla things. She covered them with coleslaw and a soggy tomato piece. She then proceeded to clean off two dirty forks by pouring a cup of water on them and rubbing them with her hands. We should´ve walked away then and there, but we were gluttons for punishment. She handed us the two fried masses and we prepared ourselves to eat the horrible things. They were worse than they looked. Trying to crack open the fried tortilla was like cracking open a crab shell, once we did open it we were greeted by some stringy mystery meat and dry rice. We didn´t even bother with the weird white slaw and tomato.
Honestly, I can´t believe we finished eating the fried nightmares but we did and the experience will stick with us for a long long time.
Fortunately at dinner we had probably the best meal of the trip, and ironically, it cost almost the same as the worst.
We weren´t very hungry last night after the trauma with the football enchiladas, but we had to eat. Chris remembered seeing a sign down the street from our hotel for Nacatamales -- normal tamales except larger and served in a banana leaf. We decided to check it out. Walking at night near our hotel was not a problem, which was a huge relief. We found the sign for Nacatamales. It was posted on the porch of someone´s home. We didn´t want to disturb the family, and we were about to walk away when a man with one leg on crutches came out and welcomed us into his home.
The restaurant was nothing more than two plastic tables and four chairs in the entry way of the family´s home. Two shy little girls smiled at us from the kitchen and their grandfather waved at us from his chair in the living room. We ordered two tamales and two gaseosas, the specialty of the house. We made small talk with the little girls and their sweet cowboy-hat wearing grandpa. The cook of the restaurant was the grandma. She happily cooked us up our food and treated us as if we were guests in her house. Then she brought out the food. WOW. The delicious tamales were perfectly cooked and filled with stewed chicken. We felt honored to have been welcomed into the family´s home when they were clearly not prepared to serve food. We will never forget this experience, just as we unfortunately won´t forget our enchilada experience earlier in the day.
All in all, other than the expensive cab, we´ve enjoyed our short time at our hotel and our quaint neighborhood in Managua. If we ever come back to the city, we´ll definitely be staying at this hotel (Hotel D´lido of anyone is ever in the area and needs a cool place to stay!).
That´s it for now. Off to the airport.
¡Ciao!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Creepy Critters of Central America
Throughout our travels in Central America, we have been warned by many people about insects and animals that can cause horrible pain, debilitating illness and death. So, in order of smallest to largest here is a partial list of critters that can terriorize most those who visit & stay in the jungle:
- mosquito: small itchy welts are the least of our worries with these guys. They carry malaria, and what seems more common in these parts -- at least among travelers -- dengue fever. Apparently the first time you get the fever you usually just get horrible pain in your bones, a fever, delirium and other flu symptoms. Get it a second time, and, most likely, you're toast.
-chi chi fly (beach mite): this little guy is indiginous to Bocas del Toro in Panama. Usually the bite they give you is harmless, but once in a while, they'll burrow under you skin and the bite will turn into what looks like a mini volcano. It's almost a right of passage for locals to get bit by the chi chi. A local guy from Bastimentos, with said affliction, was staying at our guest house so the house's owner could take care of him. The guy hobbled around in excrutiating pain, constantly talked about how he hadn't slept in days and how the shots he was receiving weren't helping. He was going to try the local remedy of burning out the mite. This required applying a burning hot banana peel to the wound. In the mean time, he was taking copious amounts of hardcore pain killers. Nice!
-punching wasp: Lives in the Panamanian highlands. The sting they deliver feels like you're getting punched. Hard. Hard enough that you're supposed to lie down when you get bit because you're going to fall down anyhow. These wasps aren't deadly.
-shooting ant: Lives in Costa Rica. A bite from one of these ants feels like you're getting shot with A GUN! What the hell?! I'm not sure how that is possible. Haven't many anyone who was bit by these guys. Perhaps a jungle legend?
-black night wasp: A woman who volunteers at the rescue center told us about this little jem of a bug. Her friend was stung and her face went slack & she couldn´t feel her arm for a couple hours. Who doesn´t want to spend the evening with stroke-like symptoms.
-scorpion: they are all over the place down here and not the big ones, but the small deadly ones. Joysie found one on our window sill in the jungle hut on the second day. Fortunately, it was just a skeleton. It´d been dead a while, but we still tucked in our mosiquito netting at all times.
-spiders: various kinds. Some deadly, some not so much, others just hurt (trantula bites, mainly)
-SNAKES: At the Jaguar Rescue, Sandro, the owner, is a snake guy, so there´s emphasis on snakes during the tour. There are roughly 140 kinds of snakes in Costa Rica, roughly 15 are poisonous and of those 15, 7 of them live near our jungle cabin. I don´t know all seven, but the most common are also the most deadly. Ferdilanz (sp), a nasty brown, cream & white colored bugger is both agressive and territorial. It will bite if you come to close. The Bushmaster, a big sucker (6 feet long), deadly but not as territorial. It won´t chase you like the Ferdilanz. The JUMPING Pit Viper it poisonous and can jump at you. Yay!
This list will get added to as we remember and as others recount their own insect, arachnid and reptialian nightmares.
Sleep well kids.
PS - We just arrived after three weeks in the jungle to San Jose, Costa Rica for a much needed stay in a hotel with running water, hot water, TV and a pizza joint next door. Whoo hoo. Tomorrow, 3-22, it´s off to Nicaragua where we resume budget travels, Joy continues to live with cold showers and we meet up with Mandy & Eric on Friday. Can´t wait.
PSS - The next post will include a detailed account of our work at the Jaguar Rescue Center. It wasn´t all babysitting monkeys and feeding bald squirrels. It was hard work, and I´ve got the blisters to prove it. Stay tuned.
-
- mosquito: small itchy welts are the least of our worries with these guys. They carry malaria, and what seems more common in these parts -- at least among travelers -- dengue fever. Apparently the first time you get the fever you usually just get horrible pain in your bones, a fever, delirium and other flu symptoms. Get it a second time, and, most likely, you're toast.
-chi chi fly (beach mite): this little guy is indiginous to Bocas del Toro in Panama. Usually the bite they give you is harmless, but once in a while, they'll burrow under you skin and the bite will turn into what looks like a mini volcano. It's almost a right of passage for locals to get bit by the chi chi. A local guy from Bastimentos, with said affliction, was staying at our guest house so the house's owner could take care of him. The guy hobbled around in excrutiating pain, constantly talked about how he hadn't slept in days and how the shots he was receiving weren't helping. He was going to try the local remedy of burning out the mite. This required applying a burning hot banana peel to the wound. In the mean time, he was taking copious amounts of hardcore pain killers. Nice!
-punching wasp: Lives in the Panamanian highlands. The sting they deliver feels like you're getting punched. Hard. Hard enough that you're supposed to lie down when you get bit because you're going to fall down anyhow. These wasps aren't deadly.
-shooting ant: Lives in Costa Rica. A bite from one of these ants feels like you're getting shot with A GUN! What the hell?! I'm not sure how that is possible. Haven't many anyone who was bit by these guys. Perhaps a jungle legend?
-black night wasp: A woman who volunteers at the rescue center told us about this little jem of a bug. Her friend was stung and her face went slack & she couldn´t feel her arm for a couple hours. Who doesn´t want to spend the evening with stroke-like symptoms.
-scorpion: they are all over the place down here and not the big ones, but the small deadly ones. Joysie found one on our window sill in the jungle hut on the second day. Fortunately, it was just a skeleton. It´d been dead a while, but we still tucked in our mosiquito netting at all times.
-spiders: various kinds. Some deadly, some not so much, others just hurt (trantula bites, mainly)
-SNAKES: At the Jaguar Rescue, Sandro, the owner, is a snake guy, so there´s emphasis on snakes during the tour. There are roughly 140 kinds of snakes in Costa Rica, roughly 15 are poisonous and of those 15, 7 of them live near our jungle cabin. I don´t know all seven, but the most common are also the most deadly. Ferdilanz (sp), a nasty brown, cream & white colored bugger is both agressive and territorial. It will bite if you come to close. The Bushmaster, a big sucker (6 feet long), deadly but not as territorial. It won´t chase you like the Ferdilanz. The JUMPING Pit Viper it poisonous and can jump at you. Yay!
This list will get added to as we remember and as others recount their own insect, arachnid and reptialian nightmares.
Sleep well kids.
PS - We just arrived after three weeks in the jungle to San Jose, Costa Rica for a much needed stay in a hotel with running water, hot water, TV and a pizza joint next door. Whoo hoo. Tomorrow, 3-22, it´s off to Nicaragua where we resume budget travels, Joy continues to live with cold showers and we meet up with Mandy & Eric on Friday. Can´t wait.
PSS - The next post will include a detailed account of our work at the Jaguar Rescue Center. It wasn´t all babysitting monkeys and feeding bald squirrels. It was hard work, and I´ve got the blisters to prove it. Stay tuned.
-
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