Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Bocas Del Toro, Anajuela

Today is the last day of my trip. It has been a good run but all good things must come to an end unfortunately. The last 10 days have really just been cruising around killing the last of my time. Not really enough time to go do a lot but too much to hang out around San Jose.

Puerto Viejo was fun but two days was enough. The last day I was there I rode a bike 23km down the ¨road¨ to the coastal park and hiked around for a couple hours. Was very relaxing and I found a cool little beach to chill on. Also saw some cool crabs, birds and lizards. Didnt see another person for hours which was a nice change.



From Puerto Viejo I jumped on a bus to Panama, well a couple buses and a boat actually, to get out to Boca Del Toro. The boat ride out to the Islands we beautiful and I am regretting I didn’t take any pictures. I met a couple German girls and a British guy, all of whom live in San Jose CR, who knew the islands well which was nice as I didn’t have to search for a place to stay or where the night life was. The town of Bocas was real chill with a lot of good bars and beaches. The two days of relaxing I had planned quickly became two days of partying to no ones surprise. The second day I was there I rented a bike and headed way up the coastal ¨road¨ which was really hilly and only partially paid. The hang over didn’t make it easier. The main purpose of the ride, outside of seeing more of the island, was to visit a bat cave that I had read was pretty cool. The cave, when I got there, was pretty short, maybe 10 feet high, and was flooded with waist high water. There were no lights what so ever so I was glad I happened to have my head light with me. There was no one in the area and it was pretty creepy heading in as my light isn’t bright, there were things swimming in the water, the walls had theses spider/crab like looking bugs that get to be as big as 6¨ across, and, once I was in the darker area, there were thousands of bats a few feet overhead. The cave was a couple hundred meters long with the majority being pitch black. The bats flew so close to my head I could feel the wind from their wing beats. I did manage to get some really cool picts though. Definitely worth the bike ride to see.



Yesterday I came back to San Jose, well actually Anajuela which is 30 minutes or so outside of San Jose closer to the airport. I met a few people on the way, including one guy from Palo Alto, and we all went out for a couple drinks last night. This morning I decided I needed something to do to help me remember my last day down here so I made reservations with a bungee jumping company. They had a trip going out at 9AM so I jumped aboard. Turns out the jump is one of the highest in the world and rated the best in Central America. The jump was 280 feet high off of an old bridge over a beautiful river. Really couldn’t have been a neater set up. I volunteered to go first before I had time to think about it. Was easily the biggest rush I have ever had, even more so than skydiving. There is something even more scary about being able to see the ground in pretty good detail when you jump. I can definitely say it will be a while before I forget it though so I am glad I was able to fit it in last minute.



Tomorrow I have a 6:30AM flight back to SF (with a 6 hour layover in Denver, guh). This weekend is looking to be pretty epic so I cant say I am totally bummed to be coming home. It was a good run while it lasted but the real world calls. I look forward to seeing all of you back in the states over the next couple weeks!

...FIN

Copan, Utila and now Costa Rica

Hello all. So the last couple weeks have been a mix of awesome and crappy. After Antigua I headed to the Copan ruins in Honduras. They had some pretty amazing totems though the ruins didnt even compare to those in Tikal.

It was worth a day but I left after one day to make my way to Utila, one of the Bay Islands off the Carribian coast of Honduras. I will say now that was one of the best decisions I have made on this trip. The island turned out to be a blast, have great night life and a ton of bars, including the most unique bar I have ever seen (one pic that doesnt do it justice is below) and really good diving schools (that also happen to be the cheapest in the world). I spent 10 days there meeting other traveling divers from all over the world and getting my open water PADI certification as well as my Advanced Open Water NAI that allows diving down to 40 meters, night diving, ship wreck diving, current diving and a couple other specialties. Needless to say It was a blast. The only hard part was balancing drinking and diving as drinking doesnt go well with deep water diving. Sadly I had to leave a couple days ago though i could have stayed longer.

My trip has been screwed by the blasted swine flu in Mexico. I was planning on going though Belize and Mexico and flying out of Cancun but had to swithch my ticket to Costa Rica (all the other countries were over twice the price). As a result i have spent the last 4 days on buses finally arriving this morning in Puerto Viejo. Ill Be heading to Bocas Del Toro in Panama in a couple days then back to San Jose to fly home ont he 13th. See all all of you soon!

Samana Santa in Guatemala

So I have been back in Guatemala, pretty much just Antigua, for the past couple weeks. I am reenrolled in Spanish classes which are going pretty well. The first week I got here was the week of Semana Santa, Guatemalas biggest holliday of the year, which is centered in Antigua. It is basically a celebration of rememberance of the sacrifice and rebirth of Christ. Im a little hazy on the details as it is a hard thing to have really described to me in Spanish and Im a little behind on my bible studies. In any case the city goes from about 50K people to over half a million durring the week. Every day there are elaborate processions and people make huge alfombras (¨carpets¨ made out of dyed sawdust or pine needles and flowers) which take hours and hours to create then the processions walk over theme ruining them in a matter of seconds. Interesting custome but its pretty cool to watch. We made a pretty good sized one at the school (below).
Some of my buddies on a wasted night out till 5AM The week was a lot of fun with a ton of huge parties and all that but buy the end of it those of us who hade been around for the whole thing were sick of it to say the least. Things have settled back to normal with Spanish lessons during the day and socializing with all the other students at the school and other people who I have me around town passing through or living here. Last weekend I went back to Lake Atitlan with some friends. We partied, jumped off of cliffs, went kayaking and checked out a couple of the towns. On Sunday we went to Chichicastinango which it the biggest outdoor market in Guatemala. It was an interesting experience with thousands of vendors and tens of thousands of people, both local and tourists. I have to pack whatever i buy around with me for the next 4 weeks or so so I avoided making any purchases (not easy to do). Below is a pic of a street in the market but it kinda sucks and doesnt do it justice.

I now have three more days of class till I head to the Copan Ruins in Honduras and then out to the Bay Islands, mainly Utila. I have decided to get my 30 meter open water PADI certification for diving out there as it is a cool place to dive, its whale shark season and its one of the cheapest places to do it in the world. Should be an interesting week with a total of 16 dives of every type from costal coral dives to deep water ship wreck explorations. Well thats about all I have for now. Hope everyone is doing well back home. I have finally purchased a ticket for May 15th back into SF so Ill see all you Bay Area cats for Oysterfest and Bay to Breakers!

Nicaragua - San Juan Del Sur, Ometepe, Granada

I just spent like 30 minutes typing a blog about the last week and it got erased so I am going to try and make this a lot more brief. I crossed into Nicaragua on the 23rd with Erika, my traveling buddy who also went to Humboldt State, and we met two girls along the way who we have been traveling with since, Toni and Holly. Both are from Vegas and are the first people from Nevada I have met traveling. Nicaragua is much like northern Costa Rica in that it is incredibly hot and dry without much greenery.

The fist couple days here we spent in San Juan Del Sur, a cool little town on the Pacific near the lake, and surrounding beaches. The town was very relaxed and had an entertaining night life though the people at the bars were mostly westerners. Le beaches were beautiful though I would still rate the ones I saw in Costa Rica higher. After a couple days of that we decided we were sick of beaches and headed to Ometepe.

Ometepe is an island that formed in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua as the result of two active volcanoes. It’s a unique place with a small amount of cool jungle with monkeys and several species of birds that only live there. The lake itself is huge and is home to the only fresh water sharks in the world (though they have been hunted to near extinction). We found a very cool hostel with a lot of backpackers and offered activities to post up at while there. The second day we hiked to the top of the nearby southern volcano and into the crater to swim in the lake that has formed there. The scenery was incredible though the lake was about 4 feet of mud with 18 inches of water on top of it. The excitement began on the way down when three of us got separated from each other and the guide and ended up totally lost. One of the girls ended up on the wrong side of the volcano and had to take two buses to get back to the meeting point and one of the other girls and myself ended up having to cut through barb wire fences and cattle fields asking for directions to the road (we couldn’t remember the name of the hostel) from the couple cattle farmers we saw.


The third day we took out two person kayaks to see the two monkey islands nearby. Everything was going smoothly until one of the girl and the guy she was into the kayak with decided to get too close to the monkeys which turned out to be incredibly hostile. I looked over because I hear d screaming to see one of the monkeys jump off a tree into the kayak and begin shaking the crap out of Holly while another one jumped in and started grabbing for goods. They tried to fight the monkeys off with a paddle but it promptly stole it and jumped back to the island. They managed to get the little bastards off by paddling away from the island. The monkeys are apparently scared of the water and so jumped back to safety. The whole thing only took maybe two minutes and was one of the funniest things I have ever seen (as no one was actually hurt). It took almost 30 minutes to lure the devils away from the paddle so someone could swim over and grab it.


We got to Granada last night in time to meet some typically big, crazy, drunk Australians and go out and get wasted. Was the first time we have gone big in a while and we are all hurting now. We are checking out this morning and heading to Managua to watch a soccer game which we are told will be quite a scene as the teams apparently hate each other. It will be made more interesting by the hand over, lack of sleep and intense heat.


Pictures to come…

Manuel Antonio, Monteverde, Samara and Tamarindo

So, Costa Rica. The country is different from Guatemala though the differences are not that huge. Hotter women and a hotter coastal climate are the two big things that come to mind. The pura vida lifestyle is very apparent as the people are, for the most part, layed back and easy going. As with Guatemala the people are very friendly and helpful especially if you attempt to speak to them in spanish.

Manuel Antonio/Quepos was the first destination after landing in San Jose (a typical large developing nation type city). We arrived after a 5 or so hour bus ride with the only real highlight being when we crashed into one of the rest stop buildings because the driver couldnt get the bus into reverse. By the time we got to Quepos it was pretty late so we focused on finding a place to stay and grabbing dinner. We spent the next 5 days lounging on the beaches of Manuel Antonio (6km from Quepos) mostly though on the last day there we did go on a hike though the national park near the beach. The park was pretty packed with animals including sloths, spider monkies, small deer, iguanas, bats, spiders and so on. The real highlight of the area came as a complete surprise while waiting for a bus from Quepos to Manuel Anotonio. We were standing in line when out of no where Ally, a friend from Humbold that I went to highschool with, pops up and says hello. It was a total shock to say the least. Turns out she is living in Manuel Antonio working for tour agency. After the greeting we proceded to go out and get compleatly smashed at the main dance club in town. That was about it. Prople looking for a beautiful beach, relaxed environment and a lot of gringos will love this area.

Olga flew out on the 18th and I am now cruising solo up toward Nicaragua. The day she caught her plain I jumped on a bus and headed north to Monteverde. After 5 days or so in the coastal heat and humidity of the coast, this cool mountain town surrounded by cloud forests was exactly what I needed. The area is basically one big reserve. I sent the next two days hiking, taking a night tour through a portion of the reserve and going on the craziest zip line tour of my life. The forest was beautiful and the animals were cool but the zip line was probably the highlight. The views from the lines were great and the lines themselves were increadibly long. The larget one was 1km long and 540 feet hight.


While in Monteverde I was talked into going to Montezuma. I randomly met two women who were heading in that direction to a beach north of Montezuma so decided to avoid three busses and 7 hours of transportion and go with them. Unfortuantly The town we went to, Samara, didnt even have access to Montezuma unless I was to back track via several buses which would have taken forever. I spent one night there and then opted to head north to Tamarindo today, a well known party town, instead. On the bus I met a girl from Ventura that went to college in Humbilt. More proof that it is indeed a very small world. I am now off to explore and see what there is to see here. Ill add pictures at some point but dont have the cables with me. Laters

Rio Dulce ended up being a pretty neat area. Took us two buses and around 8 hours to get there but it was worth it. The town itself was pretty much trash but the place we stayed, Casa Perico, was very cool. To get to it you have to take a boak across a portion of the inlet and a little ways down a small offshoot river. As the Kiwis we were with said "it was in proper jungle". I have a video that I will upload later but the place felt like the middle of the Amazon. The next morning we went with a couple we met from New Zealand to a hot water waterfall that spills into a cold river. The effect was pretty amazing. The water coming down was actually almost too hot to stand directly under. There was an over hang at the bottom of the fall that was a couple feet abover the water. When you went inside it was like being in a sauna.

After two days in Rio Dulce we headed to Livingston, a classic Caribian style town. The Boat ride up the Rio Dulce (which is actually the name of the lake/inlet that comes in on the Atlantic side) took about two hours and had fantastic scenery of dense jungle and tons of species of birds. On the way wa also went by a spanish fort that was built in the 17th century to keep pirates out of the area. The ride started in a very latin area but once in Livingston it felt more like Jamaca. The population was almost entirely black and the vibe/music/culture was a mix of African/Latin/Carribian. The result was interesting to say the least. Not too much happend while we were there outside of walking around the town and taking skittle shots with other travelors at the hostle.

We are now, after a 12 hour day of travel, in Costa Rica. The weather is much warmer here which we are still getting used to. Currently we are in a town called Quepos but tomorrow we are heading a few kilometers south to Manuel Antonio which is known for amazing beaches.

Due to a few conversations I have had and a recalculation of the time and money avaliable for my trip I have decided to cut out South America and head back up through pretty much all of Central America ending back in Guatemala in a few weeks then flying home from there. Turns out 3 months isnt enough for 2 continents.....

Atitlan and Beyond

Well we finished out last week in Antigua last Friday. Two weeks of spanish lessons helped a lot but I could use a couple more months. We only have a week left before we fly to Costa Rica on the 11th though so It was time to head out and see more of Guatemala.

We were able to squeeze in a couple more trips to the sights around Antigua during the week though, the highlight being climbing Pacaya, an active volcano outside of town. The hike itself was beautiful and the lava flow at the top is very active. I got some good picts and video that I will upload once Im somewhere that allows it.

We spent last weekend at Lake Atitlan at the towns of Panajachel and San Pedro. The lake is located a couple hours from Antigua and is at a high elevation between several mountains. Panajachel is the largest town on the lake and is where we spent the first night. There were several cool bars and good restaurants but the streets were swarming with aggresive vendors selling the usual useless crap. We ended up hanging out with an interesting old guy named Chris from the mid west somewhere. Listening to him trying to communicate in Spanish was the highlight of the evening.

San Pedro was a very different scene. Its know ans the ¨little cuba¨ of Guatemala and its pretty clear why as soon as you get off the boat. Before I had a chance to get my bearings there were locals offering every kind of drug I have ever heard of. There were a couple cool spots in the snall town such as a british bar that showed movies on a projector at night and restaraunts overlooking the lake. The night scene turned into a very strange techno dance party at many of the places though with a strange mix of people on various drugs. We didnt really get into the ¨vibe¨ of the place though and decided to head to Lanquin after just one night there (a night spent in our room hearing techno beats and people throwing up).

It took a full day to get to Lanquin, a small town nestled in the mountains with some of the most fantastic natural scenery I have ever sceen. The drive was supposed to take 6 hours but ended up taking over a full day as we had to spend the night in a town a couple hours away. Running super late and having to replan as you go has become natural though as everyone here runs on ¨Guatemalan time¨ meaning way behind schedule with frequent issues and unnecisary stops. The place we are staying at is all cabana/cabin style housing and is right next to a river which is 50 feet or so from our room.The area is quite at beautiful with tons of native birds and a great bar/restaurant with delicious food and a lively atmosphere.

The first night here we explored a huge cavern that is home to tens of thousands of bats. At dusk we sat just inside the cave as the bats woke and flew past us in swarms which was a fun but unnerving experience. Yesterday we went on a tour a little over a kilometer into another series of caverns. This set of caverns was much different though as most of them are only 10 feet or so high, sometimes less, and connected by waterways you have to swim though while holding a candle, the only source of light provided, above your head. It was easily one of the craziest experiences of my life. We then tubed down the river that runs outside of the cave and jumped off a bridge into it which was 30 feet or so high. The final part of the tour was to Semuc Champey, a series of tourcoise pools on a rock formation above the river. I can say that it was one of the, if not THE, most beautiful place I have ever been to. Ill post pictures soon as describing it takes more time.

We are heading to Rio Dulce tomorrow morning which should be interesting as it takes a series of busses to get there and none of them really have a specific schedule...Until then this is Morgan Terrill saying stay classy United States.

Weekend in Monterrico

This last weekend we decided to get out of Antigua for a bit and see the coastline so we headed down to Monterrico, a beach town on the Pacific. The town had been recommended by both my sister and people I have met over the past week. The trip was about two hours by shuttle and presented some great views of the three volcanoes surrounding Antigua as we headed south.

When we pulled into Monterrico it looked much like most of the villages in Guatemala though it was geared more toward tourism with a ton of street vendors and rows of restaurants. The temperature had risen by at least ten degrees during our decent from the higher elevation of Antigua and it was much more humid. The beaches were volcanic sand and were nearly black. We were immediately approached by a fellow named Sender. Turns out he had been born in Guatemala, raised in LA and had returned to Guatemala a few years back to start a little tourism business. Through at first we assumed he was just another schister he turned out to be a great guide and someone we spent much of our time there with. During our first day we got a little sun and then helped release 500 baby turtles into the ocean as part of a yearly effort to boster their population (and provide entertainment for tourists).That evening we scoped the local bar scene but retreated early due to the massive amounts of mosquitoes that swarmed out once the sun went down (probably got bit around 1 million times during the trip).

The next morning we got up at 5AM to go on a boat tour through the mangroves and watch the sun rise. As we approached the water the sound of all the birds and animals waking up was almost deafening. The mangroves were alive with many species of birds, fish and reptiles as we passed through them. Fishermen were already out casting their nets for shrimp and catfish.

We spent the afternoon lounging, something we hadnt done since we arrived in Guatemala and were invited by Sender, along with a couple other americans, to eat dinner at his friends familys house that evening. The other americans turned out to be from Antigua as well and were a good group. Dinner consisted of various types of seasoned fried fish, which they had caught that morning, salad and beans (which is basically what I ate for lunch and dinner every day because the fish there was amazing). It was probably the best fish I have ever had. The family consisted of the mother, eight sisters and one brother. All were very friendly and it was a great chance to practice spanish.

After dinner we went out with Sender, his friends and the Americans to a dance club filled with Guatemalans visiting from the capital. It was an interesting scene as the ages ranged from 14 to 70+ (got some pretty sewwt videos). After a couple drinks we hit the dance floor with the rest of them which was a blast though very crowded.

The next day we sat in the sun then headed back to Antigua. That night we went out with the other americans we had met in Monterrico and watched the Oscars in spanish at a local bar which was kinda funny. This week its back to the grind with classes and afternoon activities.

Week one in Antigua

Hello all. Things are going well in Antigua. Olga and I have been enrolled in Spanish classes from 8am to noon M-F and they are great. One on one lessons for around $5 an hour. Not a bad deal. We are staying in the student apartments which is making it easy to meet lots of people. The housing is $14 a day or so and includes all meals and the food has been great. I am still trying to shrug off the cold I came here with and stomach issues seem to be ever present but I guess that is to be expected with wussie american stomachs. Finally got our bags on Wednesday which was awesome. We have done a lot of after class activites and have been exploring the town and surrounding areas. This weekend we are going to Monterrico, a coastal town that is supposed to be beautiful, to lounge for a couple days. More to come later...

The trip begins

Hello all. This will be my first post for the trip. Hopefully the first of many. The trip started out a little rocky. Its kinda funny but the only issues have been dealing with americans and American Airlines. We, Olga and I, hit our first roadbump when we were chcking in at SFO. Turns out countries dont like you flying in without a visa or proof that you will be leaving the country within 90 days. It took us a while but we finally convinced the ticket agent to check our luggage all the way to Guatemala as we didnt have time to collect our luggage in Chicago and check itwith Taca (which we didnt have time for because our flight out of SFO was delayed almost 2 hours). Unfortunatly, right before we got on the Taca flight we were told that our baggage didnt make it over anyway. Currently our bags are still in Chicago and will, hopefully, be here on Thursday at which point we have to go all the way back to Guatemala City from Antigua to pick them up.

Anyway, outside of that whole mess things have been great. Despite the fact that when we arrived we hadnt slept in over 24 hours we managed to check out a lot of Antigua our first day as well as set up language classes and meet some cool travelers. After grabbing some dinner we hit the hay at 7PM and slept for over 13 hours....

We had our first one on one classes today and I thought it very helpful (well worth the $5.40 we pay an hour). We plan on doing two weeks of classes and traveling on the weekends and our third week in the country. Class is from 8 to noon which leaves the afternoons free to explore. The school also offers daily activities with the students, who are all ages from all over the world, such as hikes to the top of the active volcano right outsie of the town, bike tours of the area, salsa classes, etc. Seems to be a great way to see the area and meet lots of other travelors at the same time.

I have posted a couple picts from the trip so far and will set up a Shutterfly account soon to post more.