Hello all!
I am typing here at my hostel in Manuel Antonio, which is between the Nicoya and Osa Peninsulas on the west side of Costa Rica. We got up here a few days ago from Puerto Jimenéz after a long bus day of about 10 hours after it was all said and done. But let me first tell you all about my experience in the Corcovado National Park.
Corcovado is know (worldly I think) as an excellent place to see animals in their wild habitats. It is one of the most pristine areas in Costa Rica and there are scores of critters roaming the park and regions around the park. You can camp in the park but you need to pay a fee for just about everything. We had a group and a guide to go with and were hoping to stay in the park for three days, so we got the entrance fees and camping fees all taken care of and then met up with our guide and the rest of the group and decided on food for the few nights we would be camping, and the consensus was pasta, high carbs and lots of energy for all the hiking we would be doing.
Our first day we woke at 420am and met up at the towns bakery which was open and pumping out the breads (this was odd because in other countries we had to wait until afternoon to purchase any bread items). We had a taxi there waiting for us and after picking up the rest of the group we were off to La Palma and then into the park entrance at Los Patos. We had to cross a river a few times and we were told that this entrance is only accessable in the dry season, other times the water is too high in the river to make the crossings by vehicle. So we drove to the entrance at Los Patos and had to pay the rangers at the station all the fees, and they OK`d our entrance, and permitted us to pass. And then we started a 23.8km treck to the station at La Sirena, in the middle of the park. We scoured the tree tops with our eyes, hoping to sight animals or bugs by ourselves and not rely on the guide to point everything out, but most of our looking just made our necks hurt as we tripped over our feet. But we still got to see lots of animals, cool spiders, butterflys, birds of the jungle and got to learn about some of the plants too! Kyle and I had a great time but we had packed waaay too much water, we each had 6 litres of water, more than enough for a few long hikes but we thought that there was no water at Sirena, but we were wrong, so we were a bit pack heavy but that was ok, the wildlife kept us distracted. After a few breaks and tons of looking for critters we finally arrived at Sirena and had a chance to put our bags down and relax for a bit. It took me about three days to stop sweating, it just stuck to us like the humidity, so thick it was a constant struggle to keep hydrated and by the end of the day we all stunk to high heaven.
The second day we stuck around the station, sticking to the local trails and looking for more critters, we saw more stuff, monkeys (all four kinds, Spider monkeys, White-faced Capuchins, Howler monkeys and Squirrel monkeys) Coatis (which look like racoons with long noses and tails that stick strait up), a few Tapirs, a few green and black poison frogs (which are not posionous at all), two Anteaters, lots of lizards, anoles and jesus christ lizards, Scarlet Macaws in the hundreds, a bare throated Tiger Heron, a Croc, tons of Bugs, Black Hawks, some toucans (Chestnut-mandibled?) lots of Pelicans at the beach and many smaller tweetier birds. All told we saw a bunch of stuff, and it was fun being in the jungle for a while, dispite the humidity. After all that hiking the second day we got to play a bit of soccer, two games to three goals, two on two. It was basically the most I have sweat in all my life, literally pouring with sweat, I think I was more wet that getting into a pool. But it was fun!
The third day, well rather third morning we woke up at midnight to do a bit of a night hike and try and catch a passing around a beach point, as we would be hiking along the beach for a bit, and needed to catch low tide that wasn´t in the middle of the day. We got the point but had to turn back after waves pounded us in the dark and we could not make it around the point safely. So we had to wait it out, all of us beat after hitting the trail hard for a few hours and hiking with packs in the sand is never easy, we were stepping at double time to try and make the lowtide crossing. Some of the group managed a few minutes of sleep before the sun poke out from the horizon and the waves finally ceased to crash at the point and we saddled up again with still soaked packs and timed the waves just right to make it around the point. What an adventure. We also had rested at a land-slide spot, and feeling the ground move after every wave was not the most secure feeling.. Anyway we finished the early morning hike on the beach and got picked up by the taxi man at the airport on the south end of the park. Apparently we all looked like bobblehead dolls in the back and the driver made lots of fun at us, and some one was tooting, hahaha.
So that was our trip to Corcovado, the pictures will not do it justice, but I tried. We had a wonderful time and now we are nearing the end of a terrific journey that started in Cancun. We will be flying home on the 8th enough time has been spent here to eat up enough money and it is time to be home again, for a while anyway. We had some fun, loved the ride and only brushed the corners of what we could have done with more time and more money.
Thanks for following, see ya soon!!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
On and On, we stop for no man
Well, I have not done this in a while, Time to check in.
I dont know where to start..Basically we left Utila, and in less than a week we were in Costa Rica, on the Osa Pennisula. We made a Mad Dash from Utila, in northern Honduras [its an island off the coast] to Tegucigalpa or Tegus, because Tegucigalpa is too hard to say? We made a small stop over in Tegus and caught a bus to Choluteca, which is somewhat close to the border to Nicaragua. With a few hours of sleep in a hostel we started the next day with another Bus ride! Across the border, became official, not a problem at all, and then headed for Leon. Not wanting to waste a day in hellishly hot Leon we took a bus to Managua. Managua is the capital of Nicaragua and like most other capital cities in Central America [except for maybe Belmopan, Belize] all the transportation routes have to go through the capital. Its neat to see the capitals but most of the time you get dropped off at some bus station in the shady outskirts and just want to get out of there, or thats how we felt, SO with no further delay we hoped on another bus to Grenada. More of a peaceful city Grenada lies on the northern end of Lago de Nicaragua, more of an inland sea than a lake, but it made the city much less hot, but still sweltering. So we hoped to stay in Grenada for a few days!
We went and checked out a cool volcano by the name of Masaya. Volcan Masaya has a number of craters but one that is still active and it is basically a huge pit in the center of this mass of volcanic debris. A cross was put at one of the taller ridges by a friar fransicso [i think?] and he called it the entrance to hell, because there is a constant steamy cloud of Sulfur pouring out of the massive crater. It was a really cool pit to see and spectacular to see glimpses of the bottom and the side walls of the crater lining the layers of eruptions and rock that had made the volcano. We did a walk around an old crater, and then checked out the caves, which were an old lava tube, we got to see bats, tree roots, the beginnings of stalactites and stalagmites, and got to hear some history of the lava tube, both a bomb shelter and a place of sacrafice [at separate times of course] At the entrance to the cave we got to see a Mot Mot, the national bird of Nicaragua, such a beautiful bird, so colorful and bright. We returned to the highway via a nice tour bus that stopped and brought us the remaining 5km to the park entrance. We were especially glad because it was another HOT day in Paradise, and the Lava fields and Volcanic park gave little shade as cover. A side point, the visitor center was a really well put together and withit place, lots of information and well designed, props to the peeps who organized that center, it was the best one I have seen, and probably the most informative too.
So we returned to Grenada for a meal [fried plantanes are patacones, and they are yummy] of chicken fillets and some refreshments. Then we went to a local sports bar, well actually wondered by it and saw that they had a hoops game on, we were still parched so we stopped for a drink, found there was a soccer [Sounders!] game on in the opposite corner and watched that instead. A little while later we saw a girl wonder in the bar with a group of friends and I could have sworn it was my girlfriends sister, Kelly. She is studying abroad in Costa Rica now and has been traveling different places on most weekends with a group of students, well this time her and her group went to Grenada, and surprise, we were there too!! So after a few minutes of discussion between Kyle and I, she finally responded to my yelling at her, rather me calling her name, and after a split second of confusion relazed that it was infact us and she greeted us with big hugs. It was really good to have that kind of luck and meet her so randomly [neither of us knew the other was there] and it was great to catch up with her adventures but I think we might have made her hoarse. At any rate I felt very luck to have met up with her, and it was like seeing family randomly in a bar across the world. Thanks Kel ;)
After the games were finished and we had escorted the lady home we checked on some internets and found that another friend of mine was planning a trip in Costa Rica on the Osa Peninsula, and he was intent on starting soon, like the 29th if possible. So Kyle and I discussed and with a few weeks left anyway we decided to skip the rest of Nicaragua and head for CR and hopefully find some good adventures before we headed home on the 8th. So the next morning we headed south, across the Nicaraguan-Costa Rican border that was a complete mess. It took three hours to cross and it was HOT, we did find a Air Con bus to take us from the border to San Jose, again the capital and everything runs through it. It took nearly all day to get to San Jose and arriving at dark we found a cheap hostel a taxi told us about and rested for the night after finding a bank from which to withdrawl money. We arrived at the bus terminal that would take us to Puerto Jimenéz at 730am and tried to get on the 8am bus but it was all full, so we had to wait for the noon bus. And on a 8 hour bus ride we again found ourselves arriving into a city at dark. But from my friend Brian I knew that they were staying at a place called The Palms so we found them with ease [and really PJ is small, easy to navigate and no problems at night]
So here we are in PJ!
Yesterday was my birthday and we spent a few hours out on kayaks hunting cool critters in a mangrove and around the bay. We stopped at a beach that was just on the other side of a sand bank [we heard the waves and became curious] and swam in the hot Pacific Ocean for a while [Northwesterns will not believe that the water here is warm, and I would have loved to jump in to NW temperature water, it would have felt soooo goood] This is where we saw a small Manta Ray jump out of the water! not once but twice!! I was not aware that they could do this, or behaved like that, and as it was my first Manta Ray sighting I felt extremely privelaged, and felt it was a grand present. We continued with our own mangrove tour and got to see JC or Basalisk lizards that had three sail like extentions off their head, back and tail. On our arrival back to town we ate and then headed out for a night spotting of caimans and crocs in a local lagoon-swamp, one of our group brought some chicken scraps to temp them out of the water a bit. Caimans are in the same family as alligators and crocs and looks much like a small alligator. We got to see many eyespots and even got to feed them a bit of chicken but I really had no idea how to tell the crocs from the caimans and we all kept our distance. All in all it was a damn good day!
Tomorrow we are set, Brian, our trip setter, finally got the right guide, the right price and we are going to hike around in the Corcovado National Park. This park is world renown for being a place that is filled with many species of bird, mammal, and reptile, rich wildlife and pristine forest so we should be in for a treat. Costa Rica is absolutely Beautiful, and all though we are at the end of our trip I really wish I had more time and money [costa rica is also by FAR the most expensive place we have visited] to stay and travel. So green, and definitely more well kept than other more empoverished countries, and there are soo many things to do here but they all cost lots of money. We are luck to have this chance to go out to Corcovado and Brian tells me that our guide is really good and we should get to see some really cool stuff.
So I will report on that later, Hope all is well with all you followers, cheers and Pura Vida from CR!
I dont know where to start..Basically we left Utila, and in less than a week we were in Costa Rica, on the Osa Pennisula. We made a Mad Dash from Utila, in northern Honduras [its an island off the coast] to Tegucigalpa or Tegus, because Tegucigalpa is too hard to say? We made a small stop over in Tegus and caught a bus to Choluteca, which is somewhat close to the border to Nicaragua. With a few hours of sleep in a hostel we started the next day with another Bus ride! Across the border, became official, not a problem at all, and then headed for Leon. Not wanting to waste a day in hellishly hot Leon we took a bus to Managua. Managua is the capital of Nicaragua and like most other capital cities in Central America [except for maybe Belmopan, Belize] all the transportation routes have to go through the capital. Its neat to see the capitals but most of the time you get dropped off at some bus station in the shady outskirts and just want to get out of there, or thats how we felt, SO with no further delay we hoped on another bus to Grenada. More of a peaceful city Grenada lies on the northern end of Lago de Nicaragua, more of an inland sea than a lake, but it made the city much less hot, but still sweltering. So we hoped to stay in Grenada for a few days!
We went and checked out a cool volcano by the name of Masaya. Volcan Masaya has a number of craters but one that is still active and it is basically a huge pit in the center of this mass of volcanic debris. A cross was put at one of the taller ridges by a friar fransicso [i think?] and he called it the entrance to hell, because there is a constant steamy cloud of Sulfur pouring out of the massive crater. It was a really cool pit to see and spectacular to see glimpses of the bottom and the side walls of the crater lining the layers of eruptions and rock that had made the volcano. We did a walk around an old crater, and then checked out the caves, which were an old lava tube, we got to see bats, tree roots, the beginnings of stalactites and stalagmites, and got to hear some history of the lava tube, both a bomb shelter and a place of sacrafice [at separate times of course] At the entrance to the cave we got to see a Mot Mot, the national bird of Nicaragua, such a beautiful bird, so colorful and bright. We returned to the highway via a nice tour bus that stopped and brought us the remaining 5km to the park entrance. We were especially glad because it was another HOT day in Paradise, and the Lava fields and Volcanic park gave little shade as cover. A side point, the visitor center was a really well put together and withit place, lots of information and well designed, props to the peeps who organized that center, it was the best one I have seen, and probably the most informative too.
So we returned to Grenada for a meal [fried plantanes are patacones, and they are yummy] of chicken fillets and some refreshments. Then we went to a local sports bar, well actually wondered by it and saw that they had a hoops game on, we were still parched so we stopped for a drink, found there was a soccer [Sounders!] game on in the opposite corner and watched that instead. A little while later we saw a girl wonder in the bar with a group of friends and I could have sworn it was my girlfriends sister, Kelly. She is studying abroad in Costa Rica now and has been traveling different places on most weekends with a group of students, well this time her and her group went to Grenada, and surprise, we were there too!! So after a few minutes of discussion between Kyle and I, she finally responded to my yelling at her, rather me calling her name, and after a split second of confusion relazed that it was infact us and she greeted us with big hugs. It was really good to have that kind of luck and meet her so randomly [neither of us knew the other was there] and it was great to catch up with her adventures but I think we might have made her hoarse. At any rate I felt very luck to have met up with her, and it was like seeing family randomly in a bar across the world. Thanks Kel ;)
After the games were finished and we had escorted the lady home we checked on some internets and found that another friend of mine was planning a trip in Costa Rica on the Osa Peninsula, and he was intent on starting soon, like the 29th if possible. So Kyle and I discussed and with a few weeks left anyway we decided to skip the rest of Nicaragua and head for CR and hopefully find some good adventures before we headed home on the 8th. So the next morning we headed south, across the Nicaraguan-Costa Rican border that was a complete mess. It took three hours to cross and it was HOT, we did find a Air Con bus to take us from the border to San Jose, again the capital and everything runs through it. It took nearly all day to get to San Jose and arriving at dark we found a cheap hostel a taxi told us about and rested for the night after finding a bank from which to withdrawl money. We arrived at the bus terminal that would take us to Puerto Jimenéz at 730am and tried to get on the 8am bus but it was all full, so we had to wait for the noon bus. And on a 8 hour bus ride we again found ourselves arriving into a city at dark. But from my friend Brian I knew that they were staying at a place called The Palms so we found them with ease [and really PJ is small, easy to navigate and no problems at night]
So here we are in PJ!
Yesterday was my birthday and we spent a few hours out on kayaks hunting cool critters in a mangrove and around the bay. We stopped at a beach that was just on the other side of a sand bank [we heard the waves and became curious] and swam in the hot Pacific Ocean for a while [Northwesterns will not believe that the water here is warm, and I would have loved to jump in to NW temperature water, it would have felt soooo goood] This is where we saw a small Manta Ray jump out of the water! not once but twice!! I was not aware that they could do this, or behaved like that, and as it was my first Manta Ray sighting I felt extremely privelaged, and felt it was a grand present. We continued with our own mangrove tour and got to see JC or Basalisk lizards that had three sail like extentions off their head, back and tail. On our arrival back to town we ate and then headed out for a night spotting of caimans and crocs in a local lagoon-swamp, one of our group brought some chicken scraps to temp them out of the water a bit. Caimans are in the same family as alligators and crocs and looks much like a small alligator. We got to see many eyespots and even got to feed them a bit of chicken but I really had no idea how to tell the crocs from the caimans and we all kept our distance. All in all it was a damn good day!
Tomorrow we are set, Brian, our trip setter, finally got the right guide, the right price and we are going to hike around in the Corcovado National Park. This park is world renown for being a place that is filled with many species of bird, mammal, and reptile, rich wildlife and pristine forest so we should be in for a treat. Costa Rica is absolutely Beautiful, and all though we are at the end of our trip I really wish I had more time and money [costa rica is also by FAR the most expensive place we have visited] to stay and travel. So green, and definitely more well kept than other more empoverished countries, and there are soo many things to do here but they all cost lots of money. We are luck to have this chance to go out to Corcovado and Brian tells me that our guide is really good and we should get to see some really cool stuff.
So I will report on that later, Hope all is well with all you followers, cheers and Pura Vida from CR!
Friday, March 19, 2010
A Cry for Conservation
Yesterday I read an article from an old Dive magazine that was sitting in the dive shop. It was a article written for divers but as a marine biologist I found it particularly interesting, true, and scary.
Diving on the reefs here off the coast of Utila, I have been taken aback by the colors, the variety of fish, corals and other critters, the seemingly untouched community of coral organisms but deep down I know, and if you look closely you would see the signs too. This is a world devastated and dreary compared to what it used to be. As this is my first time actually diving I really dont know what this reef looked like before, but I do know what coral looks like when it has been damaged, bleached, broken and how many of the worlds fisheries have been almost wiped clean. I dont know what a pristine reef looks like and I think that few people actually know what a color, variety and abundance a pristine reef holds. The article was talking about shifting baselines, a term that came into use in science a number of years ago and has been used heaps with growing ecological conservation and sustainability concerns. A shifting baseline is basically the ruler or measure that we use to rate and compare different things. In ecology this often refers to an ecosystem or community, whether it is pristine, degraded, normal, rebuilding or beyond repair and how that relates to what the ecosystem once was or is now. As ecosystems are being studied the baseline has shifted from what was good is now excellent, what was bad is now ok. Our definition of what an untouched and wild system looks like is no longer relavant because we have destroyed most of the untouched places on this earth.
So while I admire the natural beauty that I see around me and am in awe that there are places like this that still exist, a part of me weeps. If the condition that we now know our world as is bad, then what will it be 25 years from now, and how far will baselines have shifted? If we want to pass some sort of natural beauty to the next generation, the change needs to happen now, standards should be set for a higher baseline, a better pristine.
Diving on the reefs here off the coast of Utila, I have been taken aback by the colors, the variety of fish, corals and other critters, the seemingly untouched community of coral organisms but deep down I know, and if you look closely you would see the signs too. This is a world devastated and dreary compared to what it used to be. As this is my first time actually diving I really dont know what this reef looked like before, but I do know what coral looks like when it has been damaged, bleached, broken and how many of the worlds fisheries have been almost wiped clean. I dont know what a pristine reef looks like and I think that few people actually know what a color, variety and abundance a pristine reef holds. The article was talking about shifting baselines, a term that came into use in science a number of years ago and has been used heaps with growing ecological conservation and sustainability concerns. A shifting baseline is basically the ruler or measure that we use to rate and compare different things. In ecology this often refers to an ecosystem or community, whether it is pristine, degraded, normal, rebuilding or beyond repair and how that relates to what the ecosystem once was or is now. As ecosystems are being studied the baseline has shifted from what was good is now excellent, what was bad is now ok. Our definition of what an untouched and wild system looks like is no longer relavant because we have destroyed most of the untouched places on this earth.
So while I admire the natural beauty that I see around me and am in awe that there are places like this that still exist, a part of me weeps. If the condition that we now know our world as is bad, then what will it be 25 years from now, and how far will baselines have shifted? If we want to pass some sort of natural beauty to the next generation, the change needs to happen now, standards should be set for a higher baseline, a better pristine.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
On to Dive Master?
Day something? on Utila. I actually think we have been here for 9 days now and I have completed my Advanced Open Water Certification. All that really means is that I can dive more places, deep dives, a little bit more advanced dives and I have 7 more dives under my belt. As I posted before, Utila is a place to get stuck, I have been here for 9 days and already I know I could stay here another 2 months and still not seen all the dive spots, all the creatures and all the conditions. I have yet to see a whale shark so I am thinking of prolonging my stay until I do! That being said I have seen some pretty spectacular things; green moray eels the thickness of my leg (well maybe bigger) and 2m long slipping along a reef wall or poking out of a crack opening and closing his mouth menacingly, conches pulling themselves across a sandy bottom leaving tracks, Hermit crabs the size of my head skittering along the bottom, Large Goliath Groupers waiting at the Captain´s wheel house appearing to ´sip´from a vase sponge, Vibrant corals in all colors, christmas tree worms fanned out, cowfish, squirrel fish, tiny shrimp and glow in the dark plankton at night. Diving to a depth of 40m/132ft is something else, I thought the pressure would crush me but it didn´t, the water world seemed so quiet under 5 atmospheres of pressure, and although I didn´t feel any different I was sucking up oxygen so fast, so up to 30m and there is still lots to see, but so peacefull, up to 18m for a while, to cruise this depth for a while and scan walls of coral for spectacular fish and elusive critters. It was great to see a wreck at the bottom of the sea, this one, the Haliburton had been sunk on purpose to have a good wreck dive on Utila so it has a different history than other wrecks but still pretty cool to swim around the entire ship and see how quickly corals and sea life had taken it over. Learning to SCUBA and doing it correctly is a blast, you can learn to float effortlessly in the water and using just a flick of your flipper float to the next object you want to peer at.
Next stop, Dive Master. A few of the dive instructors had told me that I should stick around for a while and get my Dive Master certification. While it is something I would love to do, I just dont have time on this trip. But something that I found facinating is the fact that people who have gotten stuck here have found a way to get it done, get a dive job, or get trained and then continue with their travels, something that I could do pretty easily I think, diving is just that much fun.
Well thats all for now, It has been raining here the past few days and it seems to be sunny outside so I think I will go and have a look. Hope you are all well!!
Next stop, Dive Master. A few of the dive instructors had told me that I should stick around for a while and get my Dive Master certification. While it is something I would love to do, I just dont have time on this trip. But something that I found facinating is the fact that people who have gotten stuck here have found a way to get it done, get a dive job, or get trained and then continue with their travels, something that I could do pretty easily I think, diving is just that much fun.
Well thats all for now, It has been raining here the past few days and it seems to be sunny outside so I think I will go and have a look. Hope you are all well!!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Utila: The place you get stuck
Hola from Utila, I wish I knew the creol for hello here, but I bet its something like, Ya!
Well we are here in Utila! We have been since Tuesday I think? It is a bit funny how the days just blur together, I really had to think what day is it? We got off the ferry that brought us over the water from La Ceiba, and were ambushed on the docks by reps from different hotels and dive shops. The island is not big, 13km by 5km, not very big at all, and there is really only one "town" or gathering of buildings on the island. Its basically one 'street' that is about 1 American car lane width, and everyone walks, rides their bikes, drives mopeds and motor cycles, quads, trucks (few of the last mode of transport) So you really have to be on your toes and have your senses locked on what is going and what is coming. But to be honest after a few days you make it look really cool, weaving in an out of traffic with ease, or if you like you can stay awkward and do the tourist shuffle stop and/or stutter. Anyway the street is lined with shops, stores, hotels, people houses that have turned in to these things and restaurants, bars and the all inclusives (hotel, bar, restaurant, dive shop, and store!) They don't mess around on Utila, but they do know how to take it easy. It is a well known fact that islands run on a different time than the mainland, everything slows down a bit, everyone is more chill, and there are truly no worries.
So off the dock we were given brochures and told where to go, also they were very kind and told us to check out other places first before we settled on one place to stay. Really cool, to not feel pressured like just about every other time we have been wanting to stay some place. So we wondered around and finally settled on a place called Parrots Dive Center, they had a good price, a cool instructor, Momo, and a pretty good set up, right on the water, hotel and dorms accompanying, two bars right next to it, and a few restaurants! What more did we need. I got signed up for my Open Water Certification and Kyle waited and thought it out pretty hard (not) until he decided to get his Advanced O.W. cert. So in a few days, we will both have PADI OW and AOW certs respectively, and will have had a ton of fun!
It is a new experience to breath under water, and continue to breath under water, other than skin diving and coming up for air all the time, you get to see soooo much more when you stay at depth! So I will finally be putting my marine bio degree to work?! I definitely need to brush up on my coral names!
Anyway that's all I have to report tonight, I was going to upload photos but the reader here didn't work :( maybe soon. Hope you readers are doing well, keep living life and remember to do something that scares the poop out of you everyday or at least once and a while! Keeps life interesting...Back to island life, ceeeeyaaaa
Well we are here in Utila! We have been since Tuesday I think? It is a bit funny how the days just blur together, I really had to think what day is it? We got off the ferry that brought us over the water from La Ceiba, and were ambushed on the docks by reps from different hotels and dive shops. The island is not big, 13km by 5km, not very big at all, and there is really only one "town" or gathering of buildings on the island. Its basically one 'street' that is about 1 American car lane width, and everyone walks, rides their bikes, drives mopeds and motor cycles, quads, trucks (few of the last mode of transport) So you really have to be on your toes and have your senses locked on what is going and what is coming. But to be honest after a few days you make it look really cool, weaving in an out of traffic with ease, or if you like you can stay awkward and do the tourist shuffle stop and/or stutter. Anyway the street is lined with shops, stores, hotels, people houses that have turned in to these things and restaurants, bars and the all inclusives (hotel, bar, restaurant, dive shop, and store!) They don't mess around on Utila, but they do know how to take it easy. It is a well known fact that islands run on a different time than the mainland, everything slows down a bit, everyone is more chill, and there are truly no worries.
So off the dock we were given brochures and told where to go, also they were very kind and told us to check out other places first before we settled on one place to stay. Really cool, to not feel pressured like just about every other time we have been wanting to stay some place. So we wondered around and finally settled on a place called Parrots Dive Center, they had a good price, a cool instructor, Momo, and a pretty good set up, right on the water, hotel and dorms accompanying, two bars right next to it, and a few restaurants! What more did we need. I got signed up for my Open Water Certification and Kyle waited and thought it out pretty hard (not) until he decided to get his Advanced O.W. cert. So in a few days, we will both have PADI OW and AOW certs respectively, and will have had a ton of fun!
It is a new experience to breath under water, and continue to breath under water, other than skin diving and coming up for air all the time, you get to see soooo much more when you stay at depth! So I will finally be putting my marine bio degree to work?! I definitely need to brush up on my coral names!
Anyway that's all I have to report tonight, I was going to upload photos but the reader here didn't work :( maybe soon. Hope you readers are doing well, keep living life and remember to do something that scares the poop out of you everyday or at least once and a while! Keeps life interesting...Back to island life, ceeeeyaaaa
Monday, March 8, 2010
Oh man Time Flies!
Holy Crap it´s March!
Well I guess it has been Marzo for over un semana but still, time flies!
To get you caught up a tid bit. We climbed Tajumulco and then back to Xela. The next day we caught a bus to Guatemala City to the main bus terminal which basically means we got dropped in the middle of Guate City and had little idea of what to do next. So we chatted up a friendly taxi man who said he would shuttle us to another bus terminal that would get us to our destination, the El Salvadoran border. (I cannot believe that we are out of El Salvador already!) Anyway the drive and the border came pretty quick but the light was fading, and after spending hours on a bus, more or less cramped the whole time it was time for a quick stretch of the legs to cross the river peace, get stamped a few times, get ripped off big time by money changers, and then hop back on the bus! Quick note (if you are nervous or time crunched do not deal with money changers, they are all out to get you and sometimes mind math is not so good when you are thinking of too manythings and they are using crooked math on fixed calculators.) So eventually we got off the bus in Ahuachapan, and found one of the last buses to Tacuba. Wondering the quiet and dark streets of Tacuba we were attempting to find the hostel called Mamas and Papas. We found it after some incorrect and drunken directions were fixed by another gentleman fixing his car. At Mamas and Papas we ran into, amoung others, Manolo, our tour guru. We had breakfast the next morning at the hostel and headed out for a fabulous day of jumping in a river! We had a Great time, jumping off the last waterfall-water hole was an exciting 12m jump, Kyle convinced me I could do a back flip off of a smaller ledge and we tried many other variations of jumps and diving off of 2m, 4m, 8m, and 12ms. Tons of fun. (pictures soonish?)
We decided to leave the next morning to head to another park with three Volcanoes surrounding it, Cerro Verde. We had hoped to climb all three in fewer days but we soon found that the park is actually on top of the oldest volcano, Cerro Verde, a very small park, more focused on family weekend adventures and not the likes of Kyle and I. We found that you could only do one hike a day because that´s when the guards left, 11am, no earlier, no later, and there were ladrones in the hills that would take everything you owned, even the clothes off your back. We heard from the gentleman whose place we were staying at (camping) that some people had come down one of the mountains with nothing on, just like Adam and Eve, Kyle and I almost wanted to start climbing the mountain one morning, and start naked, that way you couldnt get robbed! (well maybe carry a water bottle or something to drink). We eventually settled on Climbing Izalco, the most active of the volcano, once called the Lighthouse of the Pacific, as it had been erupting for nearly 200 years before becoming silent in 1957 (I think my info is correct, but Im going on shaky memory). We actually started at a higher elevation than the peak of Izalco so we climbed two mountains in reality. We left our guides in the dust and had a pretty cool view from the top of Izalco.
We then packed up again and headed to Santa Ana, a changing point to Metápan, where we had hopes of catching a quick bus to the border of Honduras, but we were miss informed a number of times and finally just sat at the bus station, from 930 until 1200 when we left on a bus that inched is way along a 60km stretch of mountain dirt road that lasted something like 3+hours! We finaly hopped across the border later that day and ended up in Antigua Ocotepeque, where we caught a bus to San Pedro de Sula, where we stayed the night in some shack of a hotel and were off the next morning, to Tela! And now you are caught up!
Today we spend on a tour out to a point and national park. We had a guide walk us through a short trail in the ´jungle´ and then got a break to walk-swim through the Tunnel of love, a cool split in one of the points, a tunnel from one bay to another! And then we snorkeled for about an hour, chasing fishes and floating as the waves pushed the fan corals in a waving motion. We saw some howler monkeys, a few tiger spiders (huge!), ate some carrot flavored termites and got plenty of vitamin D from the sun. Now its time to relax, probably get a siesta in before dinner and then off to the Island of Utila!
Hope all is well, sorry for the long update but now you are informed!
Well I guess it has been Marzo for over un semana but still, time flies!
To get you caught up a tid bit. We climbed Tajumulco and then back to Xela. The next day we caught a bus to Guatemala City to the main bus terminal which basically means we got dropped in the middle of Guate City and had little idea of what to do next. So we chatted up a friendly taxi man who said he would shuttle us to another bus terminal that would get us to our destination, the El Salvadoran border. (I cannot believe that we are out of El Salvador already!) Anyway the drive and the border came pretty quick but the light was fading, and after spending hours on a bus, more or less cramped the whole time it was time for a quick stretch of the legs to cross the river peace, get stamped a few times, get ripped off big time by money changers, and then hop back on the bus! Quick note (if you are nervous or time crunched do not deal with money changers, they are all out to get you and sometimes mind math is not so good when you are thinking of too manythings and they are using crooked math on fixed calculators.) So eventually we got off the bus in Ahuachapan, and found one of the last buses to Tacuba. Wondering the quiet and dark streets of Tacuba we were attempting to find the hostel called Mamas and Papas. We found it after some incorrect and drunken directions were fixed by another gentleman fixing his car. At Mamas and Papas we ran into, amoung others, Manolo, our tour guru. We had breakfast the next morning at the hostel and headed out for a fabulous day of jumping in a river! We had a Great time, jumping off the last waterfall-water hole was an exciting 12m jump, Kyle convinced me I could do a back flip off of a smaller ledge and we tried many other variations of jumps and diving off of 2m, 4m, 8m, and 12ms. Tons of fun. (pictures soonish?)
We decided to leave the next morning to head to another park with three Volcanoes surrounding it, Cerro Verde. We had hoped to climb all three in fewer days but we soon found that the park is actually on top of the oldest volcano, Cerro Verde, a very small park, more focused on family weekend adventures and not the likes of Kyle and I. We found that you could only do one hike a day because that´s when the guards left, 11am, no earlier, no later, and there were ladrones in the hills that would take everything you owned, even the clothes off your back. We heard from the gentleman whose place we were staying at (camping) that some people had come down one of the mountains with nothing on, just like Adam and Eve, Kyle and I almost wanted to start climbing the mountain one morning, and start naked, that way you couldnt get robbed! (well maybe carry a water bottle or something to drink). We eventually settled on Climbing Izalco, the most active of the volcano, once called the Lighthouse of the Pacific, as it had been erupting for nearly 200 years before becoming silent in 1957 (I think my info is correct, but Im going on shaky memory). We actually started at a higher elevation than the peak of Izalco so we climbed two mountains in reality. We left our guides in the dust and had a pretty cool view from the top of Izalco.
We then packed up again and headed to Santa Ana, a changing point to Metápan, where we had hopes of catching a quick bus to the border of Honduras, but we were miss informed a number of times and finally just sat at the bus station, from 930 until 1200 when we left on a bus that inched is way along a 60km stretch of mountain dirt road that lasted something like 3+hours! We finaly hopped across the border later that day and ended up in Antigua Ocotepeque, where we caught a bus to San Pedro de Sula, where we stayed the night in some shack of a hotel and were off the next morning, to Tela! And now you are caught up!
Today we spend on a tour out to a point and national park. We had a guide walk us through a short trail in the ´jungle´ and then got a break to walk-swim through the Tunnel of love, a cool split in one of the points, a tunnel from one bay to another! And then we snorkeled for about an hour, chasing fishes and floating as the waves pushed the fan corals in a waving motion. We saw some howler monkeys, a few tiger spiders (huge!), ate some carrot flavored termites and got plenty of vitamin D from the sun. Now its time to relax, probably get a siesta in before dinner and then off to the Island of Utila!
Hope all is well, sorry for the long update but now you are informed!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Volcán Tajumulco
Hello all,
Very quick post here. We climbed up the tallest mountain in Central America, Volcán Tajumulco. The dormant volcano is 4220m tall and until last December had never (recorded) had snow on top of it. We were luck enough not to have it snow on us because we would have been very ill prepared. To get to the volcano we took two chicken buses from Xela to San Marcos and then on to the small village just below Tajumulco (which I cannot remember at the moment).
The total of our trip came to 84Q (for the both of us), had we gone with a travel group of tourist we would have paid 800Q, so we did real good! The mountain itself was not that difficult to climb but the elevation got to us. Imagine that! We got up to the Saddle much before sunset so we had time to get camp set up and time for us to hopefully climatize to the higher elevation and less oxygen. My brain was hurting from little oxygen but Kyle was up for making it up the summit for sunset. Apparently what a sunset it was too! We slept through a cool night, I was fine in my clothes and 35 degree sleeping bag, but Kyle was cold and hardly slept. At 430am or so we were woken up by the trekkers heading up to catch the sunrise. Oh boy was it great, pictures to come, but they are something to see and even better to experience yourself!!
Well like I said short post, hope you all check out some of the photos I was able to post, cheers!!
Very quick post here. We climbed up the tallest mountain in Central America, Volcán Tajumulco. The dormant volcano is 4220m tall and until last December had never (recorded) had snow on top of it. We were luck enough not to have it snow on us because we would have been very ill prepared. To get to the volcano we took two chicken buses from Xela to San Marcos and then on to the small village just below Tajumulco (which I cannot remember at the moment).
The total of our trip came to 84Q (for the both of us), had we gone with a travel group of tourist we would have paid 800Q, so we did real good! The mountain itself was not that difficult to climb but the elevation got to us. Imagine that! We got up to the Saddle much before sunset so we had time to get camp set up and time for us to hopefully climatize to the higher elevation and less oxygen. My brain was hurting from little oxygen but Kyle was up for making it up the summit for sunset. Apparently what a sunset it was too! We slept through a cool night, I was fine in my clothes and 35 degree sleeping bag, but Kyle was cold and hardly slept. At 430am or so we were woken up by the trekkers heading up to catch the sunrise. Oh boy was it great, pictures to come, but they are something to see and even better to experience yourself!!
Well like I said short post, hope you all check out some of the photos I was able to post, cheers!!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Volcan Santa Maria by moonlight!!
Wow, lets just start there.
Last night, Kyle, a dude we met from Seattle named Damian, and I decided to do a moonlight hike up the tallest Volcano that is hugging Xela, Santa Maria is 3772m tall, so over 10,000 feet! There are a number of trekking organizations that would take you up the same mountain but some were going to wait until a full moon, which was in about 4 days? But we were not about to wait around, and we ended up saving a bunch of money (450Q vs 86Q for three people, I think we won). At any rate we talked to a volunteer run organization called QueztalTrekkers, and one of the guys-guides gave us directions on how to get up the mountain. Get a taxi to a small town outside of Xela, have him drop you off at the end of a road, walk up the road-path for about 30-45minutes then take a left at the spikey trees (yuccas)and then walk for about 20 more minutes until the trash heap, take a right and walk up the mountain! Easy as pie right? Good landmarks and a solid time schedule, but it all changes when your driver doesnt drop you off at the same place that the other Trekkers start from. So after wandering around the base of Santa Maria, where we knew we needed to head up, but couldn´t fine a trail, we had to back track and ended up stumbling on the right trail, we found the Spikey plants! and then the trash heap!
So after about a 2 hour delay finding the actual trail we headed up the mountain proper. And when I say up it was basically a stair stepper, with pointless switchbacks and lots of rocks in the trail to trip weary, tired, and headlamp trekkers.
The trail was not as bad as San Pedro but similar strain on the muscles. We reached the top after many breaks and battling through being light headed and dizzy, wow that will happen when you hike up to 10,000ft! And broke the trees to reach the summit. It was pretty spectacular in the dark but damn was it cold, wind made it even more chilly, and intelligent Jon had hiked up with shorts (along with all my warm weather uppers). So we froze at the top for about half an hour (good thing we didnt find the trail right away or we would have been up there for 2 hours freezing!) And then watched the sun peak over the horizon, over clouds, mountains, through mist and let it brighten up our day! The view was simply amazing and we got many pictures of the surrounding hills, mountains, sleepy Xela, and ourselves shivering in our ill prepared ´warm clothes´ 
As and added bonus we were actually looking right down on the most active volcano in Guatemala, Santiaguito. Which erupted while we were there on the summit of Santa María. There was also a group of people from Buffalo (university?) who had a infrared camera trained on the crater and we got to watch and learn a bit about this unique volcano. It has basically a lava plug that erupts with gases and ash about every 1.5hours and all that gas and ash shoots out from the ring around the plug, it was really cool to watch this from the infrared camera picking up the heat signature!
And then we hiked down. I dont know about all of you but I am not a big fan of the constant pounding on the knees and joints when you are down hiking, I would much rather do uphill, but we needed to get down so down we went. We finally reached the bottom and walked right on to a bus that was headed to Xela for 2Q! wahooo, much better than the taxi ride at midnight. And once we got into Xela, Kyle and I about fell asleep looking for food, we found a nice little place on the corner of Parque Central America and ate like kings for 18Q.
After that it was time to find our hostel again and hit the sack, we had gotten little sleep the night before so we will be trying to play catchup for the next few days I think.
Anyway that is all for now, (¡spoiler!)stay tuned for a few pictures in the next few days!
Love you all
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Lago de Atitlan
Hello All!
This is going to be a short post, but stay tuned because I might get another post off in a few days!
We are currently in the City of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, its a hard name to say so most people call it by its Mayan name, Xela (shay-la). Much easier! Last few days we were situated on Lago de Atitlan. Basically this is a huge, cool, fairly clear lake that was formed in a crater of number of surrounding volcanoes. If you have seen Crater Lake think of this times about 10? Its pretty massive in terms of size and its pretty spectacular to look up and be surrounded by big peaks, volcanoes and Indian nose and shores speckled by villages surrounded by corn and coffee fields. This place is pretty amazing to be and it would have been easy to get stuck here, enjoying the views from the volcanoes, swimming in the cold yet refreshing lake, entertaining an afternoon wandering town or simply sitting on a roof top taking it all in.
We met some interesting characters in the hostel we were staying in (San Fransisco). One was an older gentleman who had been here many time and usually stayed for a number of months, had been to Cambodia and all over the world. Plays the horses on his free time and works on making his room more comfortable. He thinks he might buy a stove to put up in his room so he doesnt have to deal with all the people stealing and using the plates and dishes that he buys. Another older man is an old Carnival man, who´s job was guessing occupations, he must have been off his game because he was waaaay wrong with both of our occupations (computers guys i think he guessed?) Anyway there were some funny one liners that that old man said that I will not repeat here because they are not appropriate for all audiences, needless to say they left me laughing and scratching my head.
Apart from meeting people we did get up one morning, very early and climb up the nearest volcano, San Pedro (the name of the city too!) And reached the summit at about 830am! What a spectacular view but damn did my quads and calves pay for it. The hike up the mountain was literally straight up the dang thing, there were switchbacks but they were just for show, think of it as about 5km of stairs (I could be shorting the distance too) and these stairs dont really let up the whole time. But what a work out! And we could see some of the peaks that we were surrounded by in Antigua, as well as some of the peaks that we are hopefully about to summit near Xela!
Anyway we wanted to do more but decided to move on instead. The chicken bus ride out of the crater was spectacular too, such views and also taking a bus around road switchbacks that werent very wide is pretty amazing. A few times we had to stop mid turn, back up and go forward again to make the turn, pretty cool. Constant blurping of the horn too, blasting around tight corners not wanting to loose speed for the hill!
All for now, love you all!
Monday, February 15, 2010
PICTURES
Hello again all.
As I have said before there will be no pictures as of yet because I didnt come prepared, but Kyle has pictures and if any of you readers are interested send me an email at jb02nichols@gmail.com and Ill have Kyle put you on his shared list of peeps on Snapfish. I dont think all of his photos are labeled, maybe he is that talented, but he has something like 500 pics up and is willing to share his experiences with friends, so if you want...
HASTA
As I have said before there will be no pictures as of yet because I didnt come prepared, but Kyle has pictures and if any of you readers are interested send me an email at jb02nichols@gmail.com and Ill have Kyle put you on his shared list of peeps on Snapfish. I dont think all of his photos are labeled, maybe he is that talented, but he has something like 500 pics up and is willing to share his experiences with friends, so if you want...
HASTA
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Past Civilized Guat City and into Antigua
Hola All,
Sorry to keep you all patiently waiting, I have a little bit of trouble getting my thoughts in order, and after reading a few other blogs I must say that my descriptions are lacking, so I will try harder this time.
We are currently in the Beautiful city of Antigua, once the capital of Guatemala, but no longer. The city is filled with color, indigenous people line the markets with their crafts, fruits and jewellry and such. The town is clean unlike most other cities we have traveled to, no trash in the streets or in the parks. I guess it is a tourist town but it also has a strong cultural aspect to it, the narrow cobbled streets are alive with colored buildings pressed against the sidewalks. There are people from every corner of the world here and many of them are coming for the beauty of this city. Some are more wealthy and consider this a vacation, others are more simple travelers, carrying all they need on there backs, willing to put a few bucks into the local community in order to get more out of their travel experience by learning spanish from local teachers. We have decided to learn some spanish too, and are in a home stay with a family that is hosting 5 others besides ourselves. We sit down for three meals a day, cooked by our mother, and try to speak spanish, although some of the others are not willing to fully immerge themselves and therefore more easily learn the language. There are some characters here too...thats all Ill say at the moment about that.
Lets see since the last post I should get you informed and learned about my-our travels. We did infact travel down to Rio Dulce. Took two buses to get there from Flores and we passed through some interesting hamlets, dirty and raw and Guatemalan. We changed buses in Poptun, which is a really cool name to say. And headed south to Rio Dulce through mountains and around fields of corn, coffe, bananas, and pines. We stayed at a place called Backpackers Hotel in Rio Dulce, a cool open aired establishement with an adjoining restaurant that served up some pretty mean quesadillas! We bunked up in their dorm and got a bit organized. The next morning we took a day trip out to Livingston, on the Guatemalan Carribean coast via lancha, smallish power boats that are the water taxis of this lake river system. The ride was amazing, I felt almost in a completely different world, travelling quickly over water, past bird filled islands, tiny towns on the water, tucked away in some backwater inbetween mangroves and reeds. We got to experience a sulfuric vent on one side of the river that pumped out HOT water into the river, such a strange thing to experience. We continued downstream to less occupied shores, more and more birds, pelicans soaring above or gliding three inches above the water, they remind me of what pteradactyls would have looked like. Accompanying the pelicans were White Herons, black cormorants, smaller white egrets, and more unidentified birds. Livingston is a Garifuna stronghold, people of Carribean and black descent are the majority here, such a change from Rio Dulce and further inland. We decided to checkout the siete altares (seven altars) that was 5km up the beach, basically a bunch of pools to dive into, cool and refreshing. They were an amazing construction of pools and falls, all over limestone rock, they looked like terracing in SE asia, like rice paddies but this was all natural. Back to Rio Dulce and we were headed out to Semuc Champey the next day. It was a direct truck that took us on the overland route again, over mountains, thru small villages, real Guatemala and all over dirt roads, it made for a bumpy and a bit cramped ride but it was beautiful scenery along the way. We got dropped off in Lanquín and had another truck waiting for us to take us 9 more km up to Semuc Champey. Look this up on google or something but basically it is the Rio Cahabon, flowing under a natural limestone bridge, while above the bridge is covered with consecutive cascading pools of turquoise and clear water. Such a beautiful site to look down apon from El Mirador and walking-swimming in all the pools was as refreshing as it was exhilarating. We got to see the Cahabon disapear into the cave at one end of the bridge and actually got to swim near where it punches through the other side, below the cascade of the pool water. Semuc Champey is also my favorite place name so far, soo cool to say! We stayed at El Portal while we were here and got to check out some caves by candle light too! It was awesome to be swimming one handed as you hold you candle up out of the water and try and not get it wet as the caves were filled with water and waterfalls! We got to climb up a waterfall in the cave via a rope, while holding the candle, hahaha, ok they put our candles out for this and relit them but it was still fun. Also some of the cave formations were spectacular, such a cool day!
And that leads us to right now. The collectivo ride from Lanquín to Antigua was halted by a stop in at Guatemala city, something that I will never need to do again. The guide book describes GuatCity as a city covering a flattened mountain range that is cut by deep valleys and canyons, this all together with dirty, noisy streets clogged with traffic congestion, smoke, fumes and more noise. 3.1 million call this home, I wouldn´t ever think of calling that home, but thats just me. We dropped a few riders off in Guatemala city and all got out to stretch our legs, the driver then told us to get back in the collectivo because it was not safe for us to be outside, so here we are in Antigua!
Hope all is well. more updates to come!!
Hasta Luego!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Hola de Flores
Hello All,
Sorry for the long time inbetween posts but we have been busy and while there are internet connections in most places we stay it has not been our top priority to get on the web and look around. I have been keeping tabs on myself by keeping a small journal, basic day to day stuff. We are currently in Flores, Guatemala, which is on a great big lake and is actually an Island *flores is* We are in the Northern part of Guat, called the Peten. Yesterday we went to check out the ruins of Tikal, by far this was the most spectacular of the ruin sites we have checked out thus far. Huge mountains of stone, temples, acropolises, more temples, pyramids, lots of spider monkeys, tucans, etc. Anyway all of this tucked away in the deep Jungle. Such a spectacular site!
But I guess I should get you all caught up from Tulum, this will be a quick rundown. From Tulum we headed south, to Belize, crossed the border, always some little story there. Basically they drove us to the boarder, made us all take out our bags, go through customs and then pack our bags back on the same bus. And by bus I really mean, old school bus from the states, BlueBirds. From the border we swung down to Belize City. Getting there at night was a little sketchy and we probably did not pick the best location for our hostel. BAsically right downtown in the worst part of town, but the room was cheap, and that was about it. Ate at a chinese place that night, it felt like we were in a prison though, Bars on the store door and Bars between the counter and the sitting area, a rough part of town. Next day we Shipped over to Caye Calker (pronounced Key, Kay, Caye...anyway you want really) Spend a few beautiful days there, did some snorkeling on the reef, saw turtles, rays, nurse sharks, bunches of fish and lots of coral. Heaps of Fun!! hopefully got some pictures too. From Caye Calker we headed inland again to San Ignacio, and rented a car after a day of struggling what to do. All the adventure packages out of town were very expensive. Renting a car was too but we had more freedom. Got to see St. Hermans Cave and Blue Hole Nat Park (not the Blue hole in the Ocean off the Reef) and hiked around in the jungle for a bit, Went to the Cockscomb National Park or refuge or something, in an attempt to spot some mammals , mainly looking for a Jagaur!! or some Monos, but didnt see either. Then from there we headed up to the Belize Zoo which is near Belize City, saw a whole bunch of *wild* life, all had been rescued so it was a good story. Anyway got to see a Jaguar, and man they look powerful and Majestic! Also saw more critters but more on that when I get back. Then spend the night in San Ignacio again and headed for the Guatemalan Border the next day. Now here we are in Flores and we are about to head south to Rio Dulce I think unless Kyle and I change our mind for like the 17th time today.
Love you all, and miss ya,
Malaria Monday, two weeks in and 8 to go!!
Jonny
Sorry for the long time inbetween posts but we have been busy and while there are internet connections in most places we stay it has not been our top priority to get on the web and look around. I have been keeping tabs on myself by keeping a small journal, basic day to day stuff. We are currently in Flores, Guatemala, which is on a great big lake and is actually an Island *flores is* We are in the Northern part of Guat, called the Peten. Yesterday we went to check out the ruins of Tikal, by far this was the most spectacular of the ruin sites we have checked out thus far. Huge mountains of stone, temples, acropolises, more temples, pyramids, lots of spider monkeys, tucans, etc. Anyway all of this tucked away in the deep Jungle. Such a spectacular site!
But I guess I should get you all caught up from Tulum, this will be a quick rundown. From Tulum we headed south, to Belize, crossed the border, always some little story there. Basically they drove us to the boarder, made us all take out our bags, go through customs and then pack our bags back on the same bus. And by bus I really mean, old school bus from the states, BlueBirds. From the border we swung down to Belize City. Getting there at night was a little sketchy and we probably did not pick the best location for our hostel. BAsically right downtown in the worst part of town, but the room was cheap, and that was about it. Ate at a chinese place that night, it felt like we were in a prison though, Bars on the store door and Bars between the counter and the sitting area, a rough part of town. Next day we Shipped over to Caye Calker (pronounced Key, Kay, Caye...anyway you want really) Spend a few beautiful days there, did some snorkeling on the reef, saw turtles, rays, nurse sharks, bunches of fish and lots of coral. Heaps of Fun!! hopefully got some pictures too. From Caye Calker we headed inland again to San Ignacio, and rented a car after a day of struggling what to do. All the adventure packages out of town were very expensive. Renting a car was too but we had more freedom. Got to see St. Hermans Cave and Blue Hole Nat Park (not the Blue hole in the Ocean off the Reef) and hiked around in the jungle for a bit, Went to the Cockscomb National Park or refuge or something, in an attempt to spot some mammals , mainly looking for a Jagaur!! or some Monos, but didnt see either. Then from there we headed up to the Belize Zoo which is near Belize City, saw a whole bunch of *wild* life, all had been rescued so it was a good story. Anyway got to see a Jaguar, and man they look powerful and Majestic! Also saw more critters but more on that when I get back. Then spend the night in San Ignacio again and headed for the Guatemalan Border the next day. Now here we are in Flores and we are about to head south to Rio Dulce I think unless Kyle and I change our mind for like the 17th time today.
Love you all, and miss ya,
Malaria Monday, two weeks in and 8 to go!!
Jonny
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Hola from Tulum
Hello everybody,
Hola from Tulum, Tulum is a coastal city just about two hours south of Cancun Mexico. We (Kyle and I) arrived here a few days ago after messing around in Cancun for a few days and getting acclimated. First off, our flights went fine, without hiccup, very early inthe morning but other than that no problems at all. We arrived in Cancun and wandered outside to all the other taxis and bus services, we get heckeled about everything from tours to hotels to rides to spanish lessons. Anyway we used our broken spanish to communicate to a few venders that we want to know how much it is to Cancun proper (the airport is something like 10k south of town, we could have walked, it would have taken a while, but we could have walked) "cuanto cuestan or cuanto cuesta" is the most used phrase so far. (how much for...) We ended up getting screwed right off the bat by some guy who told us that 30US would get us to Cancun. Thats a heap of cash. At any rate we paid the guy and got a ride into town, then he wanted a tip after he dropped us of, I handed him 20 pesos, basically 2 bucks (US) and he was like come on man! thats all? so he conned me out of 100 pesos, so a ride from the airport to town cost 40US, ouch. We did much better after this. Got a hostel just off the main drag, Tulum Avenue (oddly enough) at a place called Hosten. I nice man and a pretty good view of the city at three stories high. We wandered into the hotel zone the next day (walked about 10k out and wandered along the beaches infront of all the hotels) had lunch out there and then wandered back for a total of about 25k, and we didnt even get a third of the Hotel Zona completed. Not a very nice day in terms of weather but we still saw a lot of Fat Americans along the beach and in "town". We met a dude named Ken on the way back that talked a bunch about owning his own hostels and restaruants and bars and how he makes a killing co-owning these places. He convinced us that we could find a car for cheap and drive the "F" out of it and then sell it to someone in Costa Rica for the buying price or more, almost making money on the trip, and getting to go where ever the "F" we wanted. He was a chain smoker who thought pretty highly of himself and even though he had been in mexico for 14 years didnt speak a lick of spanish, he asked a guy later if "tu tengo uno coche" (do you I have a car?) anyway we ended up not getting a car after a lot of toting our bags all thru town and ended up hitching a ride on a second class bus to Tulum, south of cancun. I was ready to get out of super touristy cancun.
In Tulum we are staying at the Weary Backpacker, nice place, nice people and lots of smokers, I have been asked three times now if I wanted some ganja, skunk or weed. There is one guy that is there that I have yet to see him without a joint burning in his hand. Luckily the courtyard is breasy so it doesnt smell too bad of weed, but everyone also smokes cigs. Anyway, yesterday we spent at the beach, and walking around the ruins at Tulum. The ruins are a walled sea port city that was pretty cool, but the first ones we saw so we have nothing to compare to. Kyle and I were more interested in all the iguanas laying around the structures and were a little disapointed that most of the site was roped off and you had to stick to the paths. Anyway we had some fun on the beach, snorkeled a bit, didnt see much, but got some sun, played some soccer with some tourist and locals, attempted to body surf and got more sun. We headed into town to the new super market (san fransico de asis) and picked up some fixins for way cheap and made steak tacos! Today we went out to the beach again but this time with a guide, Javier, saw some turtles, a baracuda and some other fishies, the coral was not that impressive and Javier was kindof rushing us along, always to a new spot. Anyway it would have been fun to snorkel a bit more with the turtles but it was fun nonetheless. Next we went to the Cenote called Los Dos Ojos, what an amazing experience that was. Snorkeling in the fresh water cave and having a blast looking thru crystal clear water up at the water surface, knowing that there are some 30m of limestone above and stalagtights hanging down. Just a fantastic awesome experience, It made the trip worth the fourty dollars US we spent.
Anyway running out of internet time here so thats all for now, Heading to Belize tomorrow and going to check out the Cayes (Keys) more snorkeling will happen and maybe more turtles and more fishes and maybe a shark or sting ray or something!!
Hope everyone is well, Adios amigos
Hola from Tulum, Tulum is a coastal city just about two hours south of Cancun Mexico. We (Kyle and I) arrived here a few days ago after messing around in Cancun for a few days and getting acclimated. First off, our flights went fine, without hiccup, very early inthe morning but other than that no problems at all. We arrived in Cancun and wandered outside to all the other taxis and bus services, we get heckeled about everything from tours to hotels to rides to spanish lessons. Anyway we used our broken spanish to communicate to a few venders that we want to know how much it is to Cancun proper (the airport is something like 10k south of town, we could have walked, it would have taken a while, but we could have walked) "cuanto cuestan or cuanto cuesta" is the most used phrase so far. (how much for...) We ended up getting screwed right off the bat by some guy who told us that 30US would get us to Cancun. Thats a heap of cash. At any rate we paid the guy and got a ride into town, then he wanted a tip after he dropped us of, I handed him 20 pesos, basically 2 bucks (US) and he was like come on man! thats all? so he conned me out of 100 pesos, so a ride from the airport to town cost 40US, ouch. We did much better after this. Got a hostel just off the main drag, Tulum Avenue (oddly enough) at a place called Hosten. I nice man and a pretty good view of the city at three stories high. We wandered into the hotel zone the next day (walked about 10k out and wandered along the beaches infront of all the hotels) had lunch out there and then wandered back for a total of about 25k, and we didnt even get a third of the Hotel Zona completed. Not a very nice day in terms of weather but we still saw a lot of Fat Americans along the beach and in "town". We met a dude named Ken on the way back that talked a bunch about owning his own hostels and restaruants and bars and how he makes a killing co-owning these places. He convinced us that we could find a car for cheap and drive the "F" out of it and then sell it to someone in Costa Rica for the buying price or more, almost making money on the trip, and getting to go where ever the "F" we wanted. He was a chain smoker who thought pretty highly of himself and even though he had been in mexico for 14 years didnt speak a lick of spanish, he asked a guy later if "tu tengo uno coche" (do you I have a car?) anyway we ended up not getting a car after a lot of toting our bags all thru town and ended up hitching a ride on a second class bus to Tulum, south of cancun. I was ready to get out of super touristy cancun.
In Tulum we are staying at the Weary Backpacker, nice place, nice people and lots of smokers, I have been asked three times now if I wanted some ganja, skunk or weed. There is one guy that is there that I have yet to see him without a joint burning in his hand. Luckily the courtyard is breasy so it doesnt smell too bad of weed, but everyone also smokes cigs. Anyway, yesterday we spent at the beach, and walking around the ruins at Tulum. The ruins are a walled sea port city that was pretty cool, but the first ones we saw so we have nothing to compare to. Kyle and I were more interested in all the iguanas laying around the structures and were a little disapointed that most of the site was roped off and you had to stick to the paths. Anyway we had some fun on the beach, snorkeled a bit, didnt see much, but got some sun, played some soccer with some tourist and locals, attempted to body surf and got more sun. We headed into town to the new super market (san fransico de asis) and picked up some fixins for way cheap and made steak tacos! Today we went out to the beach again but this time with a guide, Javier, saw some turtles, a baracuda and some other fishies, the coral was not that impressive and Javier was kindof rushing us along, always to a new spot. Anyway it would have been fun to snorkel a bit more with the turtles but it was fun nonetheless. Next we went to the Cenote called Los Dos Ojos, what an amazing experience that was. Snorkeling in the fresh water cave and having a blast looking thru crystal clear water up at the water surface, knowing that there are some 30m of limestone above and stalagtights hanging down. Just a fantastic awesome experience, It made the trip worth the fourty dollars US we spent.
Anyway running out of internet time here so thats all for now, Heading to Belize tomorrow and going to check out the Cayes (Keys) more snorkeling will happen and maybe more turtles and more fishes and maybe a shark or sting ray or something!!
Hope everyone is well, Adios amigos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
