BubblesandBugs.com - Travel and Scuba

Pho Real (and Happy Thanksgiving!)

Welcome to this weeks update, otherwise known as “Cindi’s Rambles”.  As Jason previously mentioned, our first stop in Vietnam was Saigon (aka Ho Chi Min City).  We spent the day walking through the market, going to Independence Palace and the War Rements Museum.  After the days spent in Phnom Pehn - we were ready for something a bit more fun, but I knew the Museum was a must see.  And as we were pre-warned, a certain group of people from here have put in a lot of work to make them look like the good guys and the Americans as the bad guys.  The museum was completely one sided and most of Vietnam is still full of propoganda - but it is still interesting to see and hear the other side (I guess). 

Here is a picture of Independence Palace (or Reunification Palace).  The below gate is in it’s original form since a tank of the North Vietnamese Army hit it, ending the Vietnam War on 30 April, 1975:

We headed to the beautiful fishing village of Mui Ne for a few days.  Actually - we were about 18 km south of the village at a gorgeous beach where people come from all over to kiteboard and windsurf.  One afternoon while sitting on the beach - we saw over 30 kiteboards.  It’s something we’d seen done at Folly Beach, SC a few times and were interested in trying - but a 5 hour lesson was $300 and they said it can take anywhere from 5-10 hours to learn to do it.  Since we didn’t have the time (or money) we chose to find a chair to soak up the sun for a few days. 

One day we rented a scooter and rode up to the famous red sand dunes.  We heard there were kids there renting slides you sit on and ride down.  We paid 2 kids $1 each to rent us their slides and walked up the giant sand dunes.  One ride down and I knew I wasn’t in love with this outing.  I gave it another go - and still wasn’t convinced.  It was HOT and sand stuck to every inch of my body.  We grabbed a pepsi and headed back to the beach - and spent the rest of the afternoon boogie boarding and reading.  Nice!

The next day we headed north to the highland city of Dalat.  We’d read it was where the Vietnamese go to honeymoon and that it was a lovely town.  Well - upon first arrival, we weren’t sold.  It was a much bigger city than anticipated and nothing really to do except take a ride with the “Easy Riders”.  This is pretty much a joke.  It’s a group of older Vietnamese men in blue jackets who ride “hardley’s” (what Jason calls any Harley Davidson wannabe), except they weren’t even quite hardley’s - the bike brand was “Bonus”.  Haha! 

Anyway, we found a guy Peter who refused to pay the 10 million dong pricetag to the gov’t for a blue jacket and he calls himself a “Free Rider”.  Peter took one motorbike and Jason and I on another and we cruised around the villages above Dalat.  He took us to the crazy house (think Alice and Wonderland), a waterfall, the happy buddha, a coffee plantation, flower plantation, a place they make rice whiskey (ask Jason about how great that tasted!), and a silk factory.  We ended the day with a cable car ride.  On the way up the final hill - we started to putter and suddenly realized we were out of gas.  So Peter came to the rescue and ran and grabbed us a liter of gas (in a plastic bag, nonetheless!).   

Since we’d done all there is to do in Dalat - we headed back to the ocean to the big city of Nha Trang.  We had pulled into the city limits when yes, we ran out of gas again!  A lady on a scooter came to the rescue, but we decided it was Jason and I that put a jinx on the bus. 

It’s rainy season here in Nha Trang- but we were still determined to do some scuba diving.  It has been since July!  We walked around and found the dive company we liked best, Octopus Diving (or Sailing Club Divers - same same!), and signed up to dive.  We hit the water yesterday and found it was only about 5 meters visability.  In Utila - we were VERY spoiled with 25-30+ meters visability everyday!  At one point yesterday we lost our DM and each other!  But the coral here is beautiful and we managed to see a few fish we’d never seen before - so it wasn’t a complete waste.  As an added bonus - I was bit by a clown fish! 

However, I don’t recommend the diving here.  There were huge fishing boats everywhere around the reef and a few times I thought I was going to get hooked in.  They eat everything here from fish and seahorses to turtles and shark - and they sell the coral and seashells.  I tried to pick up some of the litter at the bottom - but I found a huge graveyard of over 10 2-liter bottles, I couldn’t bring it all up!  The fishermen and people on the island that catch swallows nests pay the gov’t approx. $10 billion USD each year - so the diving industry is put as a last priority.  Very sad. 

Today we’d booked a 4 island tour with snorkelling, lunch, and a tour of a village - but we woke up to pouring rain.  So our Thanksgiving has consisted of eating a bowl of Pho (vermicelli noodle soup with herbs, beef, bean sprouts, hot peppers….it’s divine!), and catching up online.  Luckily we have good books and a TV in our room - so we’ll be celebrating by vegging out. 

I’m extremely thankful to be here and to be able to travel around the world with Jason.  We’ve been awakened by the things we’ve seen and everyday I think about how lucky we are to come from where we do, to have amazing families and friends, a good education, and the means to travel.  Most locals we meet have never even left their towns let alone their countries.  Most locals we meet work harder than ever from sunrise to sunset.  Most don’t have an education.  Most can barely get by.  I hope everyone back home has an amazing Thanksgiving and takes the time to look around and be truly thankful.

Anyone have some leftovers they would care to bring us? 

Cheers!
Cindi

Same Same….but Different!

We made it to Thailand on the 27th - and have been busy soaking up the culture, the noodles, and the bugs.  Sorry for making you wait nearly 2 weeks for an update - we’ve been ‘unplugged’ for quite a few days and the days we’ve been in the city have been spent exploring and relaxing. 

It’s funny that my father, who was here nearly 40 years ago, and I have had many of the same observations of Thailand.  I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing a few….

“i think of the beautiful people and i smile
i think of their music and wonder why they call it music.
i think of their dancing, the costumes and marvel at their past.
i think of the taxi drivers and wonder how i survived.
i think of their alphabet and desire to read it.
i think of the nit-knowy amount of their language i learned and wonder if i should learn more
i think of their food and desire to eat
i think of the water festival and wish everyone in the US would go so crazy for a week — just having fun.
i think of the poverty and remember that they did not know they were poor — only loving
i think of the bugs people would eat
the beggers
clothing which was wet all of the time during the rainy season.
the mekong river
the humidity
on and on and on”

Like I said, crazy how things don’t change.  Except that Dad, even though it’s the dry season, I find my clothes to be constantly wet anyway!  Jason and I have decided we should have named our blog “sweatfest2008″ instead of ‘bubblesandbugs’.  However, I’m happy to report that Jason has tried his first bug and said it tasted like corn.  I was too much of a wuss to try it.  But I know I’ll have to muster up the courage somehow before we leave South East Asia.

We’ve really been loving Thailand and Laos.  The first night in Bangkok we went to a Muay Thai Boxing match (for Jason, since he misses watching UFC fights) - it was long, but pretty entertaining.  There were about 7 fights and each one had 5 rounds.  I decided early on I could have taken any one of these guys - they were tiny!  The heaviest was 121 pounds!

We spent a few nights in Bangkok enjoying the city and eating a ton of Pad Thai on Ko San Road.  We met Mr. Thailand and had a bucket. 

We went to the floating market in the pouring rain.  (picture won’t upload for some reason - will have to get one later)

We went north via 13 hour train ride to Chang Mai and rewarded ourselves with a 30 minute foot and leg massage for $2.50 each!  The next morning we went on a 2 day trek with about 10 other travellers.  The first day was spent walking uphill for about 3.5 hours.  It wasn’t my favorite thing in the world, but once we arrived at the village it was beautiful!  We had a waterfall nearby and we all instantly ran down to rinse and cool off. 

***note: this is NOT the bug Jason ate

The next morning we got up and went on a 1 hour elephant trek, had some breakfast, and went for another short hike.  We were then driven on a muddy road (which we were afraid we were going to have to end up pushing the truck up) and went for a quick 40 minute white water rafting trip and then were transferred to a bamboo raft.  It was great and definitely a great value for a tour.  The entire trip cost us 2800 baht, which is about $85 for both of us. 

On November 4th, we headed to the Laos border.  That was voting day in the states, but we were 12 hours ahead of EST, so we couldn’t start checking the results until the next morning.  We spent the night on the border and found a room with a TV and woke up around 6 AM to see how things were going.  By 9 AM the results were just starting to come in, but unfortuntely, that is when we were to be at the dock to start our 2 day boat journey down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang.  The boat was scheduled to leave at 10, but didn’t end up leaving until 11:30 - which meant we got the news of the election before we left!  We were both ecstatic and I couldn’t help but celebrate on the boat with all our new foreign friends. 

For 2 days we sat in a crammed boat with about 100-130 others (we were told the max. on this boat should be 70), sitting on crappy wooden bench seats, and trying to keep ourselves entertained.  But we finally made it and this city is beautiful.  It’s clean and reminds me of Antigua, Guatemala or Granada, Nicaragua - very coloniel. 

Yesterday we rewarded ourselves with a trip to the Xuang Si Waterfalls.  Here is a shot of Jason jumping off into the cold swimming pools:

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Tomorrow we head south to Vang Vieng with the “Tumbleweeds” to do some tubing and maybe some river rafting.  Then we’ll head to Vientiene and continue south to Cambodia.  Hopefully we’ll be better at updates!

Cheers!
Cindi

Namaste

Imagine you are driving somewhere, really important and you must go as quickly as possible.  However, the only road available is a one way road.  You must constantly weave in and out of traffic, slamming on your brakes and again speeding up.  You must dodge cars, buses, bicycle rickshaws (which apparently are only driven by the oldest, skinniest of Indian men), and motor rickshaws (our preferred mode of transport).  And you also also have to avoid cows, camels, elephants, dogs, pigs, monkeys, and a population of over one billion people. 

That is what driving in India is like.  It’s frightening, insane, entertaining, and I’m happy to report, quite safe!  For the 3 weeks we were in India, I saw only 1 minor accident.  And thank goodness for that, because I also only saw 1 ambulance. 

I’m not quite sure how I felt about India.  I still am trying to wrap my brain around the places we went and the huge amount of the country we covered in 3 short weeks.  Definitely not enough time to take it all in.  I know people that have returned again and again and love it here.  Me?  I’m not so sure.  I saw things I never thought I’d see.  I saw more people sleeping on the streets and beggers than I ever knew existed.  People sleeping in homes that we in the U.S. wouldn’t even park our cars in our let our dogs call home.  There is garbage piled up everywhere - and on a 2 hour train ride from Delhi to Agra - I saw over 200 hundred people taking their morning poops.  I had people constantly staring at me - and I mean constantly.  And then there were the ‘Indian style toilets’. 

I’m convinced that anyone who comes here and truly loves it either:
A:  only come to stay at an ashram and avoid any big city
B:  come on their companies bill and stay in nice hotels and have their own drivers
C:  have family or friends here to show them where to REALLY go

We left India Saturday after taking a 16 hour train ride (which was under 300 miles, by the way).  I’m definitely glad I had the chance to come experience India and see all the wonderful sites it has to offer (the Taj was just as amazing as I’d always imagined!) - however, I’m not exactly sure I’d recommend it as a place to visit.  If you’ve been here and loved it - tell me why, I’d love to hear!

We have been in Nepal enjoying Royal Chitwan National Park.  The internet here is extremely slow, so hopefully when we arrive in Kathmandu tomorrow - we can get some pictures uploaded.  But so far, while here we’ve helped bathe elephants, gone to the elephant breeding center and pet a 4 month old elephant, we took an elephant safari and walk through the jungle yesterday and saw rhinos and monkeys, we rented bikes and cruised around the town - and all I can say is that I’m loving it here.  It’s clean, people are kind and honest, the food is great (they even have mexican food here, which I’ve been loving!), and it gets a little chilly at night. 

Tomorrow we head to Kathmandu for some site seeing and then we’ll be on a 4 day rafting and canyoning excursion up north.  I can’t wait!

Cheers!
Cindi

Dehli Belly

It happens to the best of them.  Finally, India food has caught up with us both.  Not sure if it was all the delicious curry, naan bread, samosas, tandori chicken, or the momo’s - but for the past 3 (4?) days, Jason and I have been laid up in McLeod Gang.  But I do have to say - there is no where else in India I’d rather feel this crappy.  It is beautiful here!  This morning it rained hard for a couple hours and when we woke up - we had the most amazing views of the Himalayas.  More on MG later.

Jason and I headed on a day train to Amritsar last week.  I was hoping that because the population there is only 1 million vs. the 12 million living in Delhi - it would be a bit more chill.  But it’s definitely not.  The city is crazy!  There are Sikh’s walking to their Golden Temple at all hours.  I’ve never seen so many turbans in one place.  But, with all the people and traffic - we really enjoyed Amritsar.  The Golden Temple is beautiful!  We went there the first night we arrived to see it lit up - isn’t it lovely?

When you go there, you are required to keep your head covered as well as walk through a pool to wash your feet.  We waited for almost an hour (with a wool scarf over my head!) to get inside the temple.  When you make your way in, there are men playing the instruments and chanting - which is heard on loud speakers all over the grounds of the temple.  People make offerings and had no problems shoving us aside.  But since this is their temple - we just let them and figured we were inside less than 30 seconds before being shoved out. 

The next day we headed back to the temple to get some pictures with our 40D.  The temple is surrounded by holy water and men bathing in it, so the water somewhat cooled the marble ground.  On the way in - I made Jason purchase his own bandana, because there was no way I could make it with a wool scarf over my head in such hot tempuratures.  I’m not so sure our gangster bandanas helped us to blend in.  It probably doesn’t matter.  We get stares from everyone constantly.  It’s entertaining how many people ask us to take their picture. 

Around noon - we headed to the langar hall to partake of the community meal.  Sikh’s don’t believe in the caste system like the Hindus - so to show just how serious they are about this - they serve a free meal to nearly 40,000 people daily.  We made a small donation and sat on the ground with our trays.  Volunteers come around and serve up dahl (lentils), a potato curry, and freshly made chipathis.  It looked like prison slop coming onto our trays, but really tasted good!  I had to made quite an effort to eat only with my right hand (I’m a lefty and that hand it only used for bathroom duties here) - and am happy to report I only spilled on myself twice. 

Here are some pictures of the volunteers doing all the thousands of dishes, as well as a picture of the dishes they pass out. It’s unreal!

After enjoying the temple and learning more about the Sikh’s - we grabbed a cab with 2 Israeli’s to the India/Pakistan border closing in Attari, India. Jason loved this. I couldn’t tell if I was entertained or depressed about the whole thing. India and Pakistan truly hate one another and they put on quite a show when the border crosses. The have stands set up for audiences to watch on both sides - the India side was packed, while the Pakistan side was nearly empty. The guards huff and puff and stomp around and give each other dirty glares while lowering their country flags and closing the gates. Jason took a bunch of great pictures that we haven’t uploaded yet - so enjoy this video:

We left Amritsar to Dharmasala by bus Wednesday. We took a cab to McLeod Ganj, found a room and headed for dinner. That night I started feeling pretty sick and spent the night near the toilet. The next day I was hoping I would feel better, so after sleeping in - I went with Jason to town to grab some lunch. I sat there watching him eat and tried to drink something and suddenly started feeling sweaty and clamy. I got up and ran outside and puked in the street. I had my mouth covered in a napkin and it was spurting everywhere. I’m sure it was hilarious. So I ended up going back to the room to be near a toilet and try to relax. The next day I was feeling better, but by then it had hit Jason. So we ended up laying around 2 more days in our room. We each read 2 books and saw about nothing here. We heard the Dalai Lama was in town, as McLeod Ganj is where he makes his home in India. In fact, this town is filled with refugees from Tibet. We tried to get tickets to see him speak, but had no luck. It’s probably for the best because we both felt terrible.

Yesterday for the first time in days we left the room and walked around. We visited a Buddhist temple and took some pictures around town. We are slowly but surely feeling a bit better. We hope to survive the night bus back to Delhi tonight - because it’s going to be a 12 hour ride and we are out of Immodium! Wish us luck!

Tomorrow we will see the Red Fort and then Wednesday we’ll head to Agra and visit the Taj Mahal before making our way to Nepal by the weekend. It’s been a quick couple weeks in India and there are still many places we’d like to visit here - but it’s time to move on. I just finished the book, “Holy Cow!” by Sarah McDonald which in the first 40 pages she pretty much sums up India perfectly. If you get a chance, you should pick up a copy.

Cheers!
Cindi

Bored in Bangalore

Perhaps not bored, but severely jetlagged.  Jason and I made the 30+ hour journey from Kansas City - Chicago - Frankfurt - Bombay - Bangalore and arrived around 5:45 AM local time.  It’s 11.5 hours difference from SLC time or 12.5 hours from KC.  I think we both slept about 5-6 hours the entire flight, so when we arrived we headed straight to our hotel and crashed until 7 PM.  We had hoped to stay awake that day in order to adjust, but no could do.  We woke up and Jason headed out to buy us some water and toilet paper (the hotel room didn’t include TP or a shower) and when he returned he insisted I get out of the room and walk around to see India.  Our hotel was off 2 main roads; MG Road and Brigade - so we walked around, found some food and endulged in our first Indian meal.  We got tandori chicken, tikka masala chicken, alu gobi, rice, and poratta plus 2 soft drinks for under $5.  Ah yeah! 

We went back to the room where ‘Euro Trip’ was on the TV so we watched that, followed by “Wild Hogs” and ended up going back to sleep around midnight.  Jason was up by 4 and read for a couple hours while I managed to sleep until 6.  As I mentioned before, our room didn’t have a shower, but they provided a nozel with hot water and buckets.  So we “showered” and headed to the train station to purchase overnight tickets to Hampi for tonight.  We dropped our bags in the train station cloak room and went to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden.  It wasn’t that great, but gave us a great place to relax on some benches in the shade and take some pictures. 

Now we are killing time until our train.  There isn’t a whole lot to do in Bangalore on a Sunday, and quiite frankly, we are too tired to do much anyway.  But we are here and very excited to explore India!

Cheers-
Cindi

Revised Itinerary

After being on the road for a few months, we’ve met a lot of travellers who have told us amazing stories about places they’ve been.  One of the beautiful things about our trip is, we don’t have solid dates or places locked in (excluding the fact that we have one ticket booked to Bangalore, India leaving on Sept. 18th) - so we can be flexible.  Therefore, I hearby announce our latest and greatest itinerary (you can see our previous plans here http://bubblesandbugs.com/2008/05/07/very-rough-itinerary/). And of course, all dates are approximate at this point:

September 20th - October 11th: India - we’ll work our way from the south to the north

October 12th - November 1st: Nepal - still hoping to do a trek, possibly to Everest base camp.  Any ideas of how to do this without spending a fortune???

November 2nd - January 6th: Southeast Asia - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and possibly Malaysia and Indonesia

January 7th - March 8th:  Africa - our Aussie friends Kaye and Trevor highly recommended a company called Absolute Africa which will take us on a camping safari through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.  We’ll end the trip in Capetown with a cage dive with some Great White Sharks, recommended by our Danish buddy Mike

March 9th - 30th:  Australia - we’ll most likely fly into Sydney and work our way north to Cairns

April 1st - 20th:  New Zealand

April 21st:  Home

As always, we appreciate any recommendations to these places we’re going.  We will try to keep our “Where Are We?” page better updated.  We also hope to keep postings and pictures up more regularly.  We skipped taking the Canon 40D on the first leg, but will take it along with the newest member of our Canon family collection, the Canon 10-22mm, with us on the rest of the trip. 

I’ve been having a fabulous time in Salt Lake catching up with wonderful family and friends.  I haven’t been able to spend much time with my girlfriends since I moved to Charlotte in late 2004 - but this week we’ve gotten together nearly everyday.  I’m very sad I missed my BFF Laura’s wedding while I was in Costa Rica, but I wanted to let she and Erik know how happy I am for them.  And seriously, it’s about damned time!  ;-) 
 

I’m heading back to Missouri tomorrow, where Jason has been working away at his dad’s shop all week, and where Willits will also be joining us for a few days on a business trip.  We’ll be at the Mizzou game Saturday and enjoying the weekend and then Jason and I have a ton to do before we fly to India Thursday.  So let this be a warning, you may not hear from us again until we have arrived in Bangalore.  Which, by the way, won’t be until the 20th.  Yes, that’s right….it will take us over 24 hours of flying time to get to India.  Thanks to Dr. Rogers for the ambien.  Haha. 

Cheers!
Cindi

The 5 ¨Be´s¨

As this first 3 months of our trip comes to an end, and after spending nearly 9 months of my life in Central America…..I thought I would share a few ¨be´s¨ that I have learned while travelling down here, but will probably apply throughout all of our travels. 

The 5 Be´s:

*  BE PREPARED - Jason is an eagle scout, so he has this one down.  While you´re on those long bus or train rides….try to figure out your next step before your exit.  Try to read up on the area you´re going to and know how much to expect to pay for a cab, or a piece of jewerly.  If you are getting let off the bus at night, have a headlamp or flashlight handy, know where a close hostel or hotel is, and Jason and I have found we feel more safe carrying a pocket knife.  Thank goodness we haven´t had to use it!

*  BE FLEXIBLE - it might rain, the hostel you had hoped to stay at could be booked up, the bus might be full….it´s helpful to have a sense of humor and creativity when this happens.  Usually a full hostel might have a recommendation for somewhere nearby, just because a bus is full doesn´t mean you can´t sit in the isle, and don´t let rain ruin your day.  Take a day to relax, regroup and try again tomorrow. 

*  BE A STUDENT - while it´s tempting to sleep on those long bus rides (in one day we travelled from Tegucigalpa, Honduras to Managua, Nicuragua…..over 16 hours of travel time!), try to be alert and awake and spend time looking out the window.  Find a phrase book or flash cards and learn at least the basic phrases for the country you are in and try to practice these with the person on the bus next to you, the lady at the local soda or supermarket, the man on the park bench.  Read (at the very least) the history section in the countries Lonely Planet guide.  Know about the culture, the food, the people…….and you will enjoy yourself a whole lot more.

*  BE EARLY - my advice is if you have a travel day planned, always take the first bus available.  There are days that had we taken the 5 or 6 AM bus vs. the 6 or 7 AM bus, we could have made our entire route in one day, instead of spending nights in random towns like Nicoya.  There are days that if we hadn´t woken at 4:50 AM and taken a bus, we would have missed the transfer ferry.  You get it.  Wake up and get going!

*  BE PATIENT - ordering food, for instance, is not like ordering food in the good ol USA.  Down here, they have a much slower pace of life and they don´t rush anything.  Also, don´t sit around for an hour after your meal wondering when the check is coming.  You have to ask for it.  Stores will be open and closed at hours we aren´t used to.  Learn to relax, appreciate their lifestyle and you will see how a slower pace isn´t such a bad thing!

We have been spending the past couple days in Monteverde enjoying the cloud forest, walking around, and trying to prepare for the next leg of our trip.  We´re heading to San Jose tomorrow and hope to go to Volcano Poas Thursday or Friday and then it´s off to the States Saturday for a couple of weeks.  Postings may be slow, but we hope to have completed beer reports, pictures recovered and posted and an updated packing list and itinerary changes! 

If anyone wants to get ahold of us while we´re in the States (since we are both cell phone less!), shoot us an email and we´ll get you our parents phone numbers.  We´ll be in Missouri and Utah, so hopefully we´ll be able to catch up! 

Cheers!
Cindi

Lo Siento!

Our sincere apologies for not updating in almost 10 days….we have just been having way too much fun, and also, our camera memory card has issues and the internet cafe USB´s won´t acknowledge the fact that there are any pictures on it.  So for now you get an update, but no pictures.

Since we last left off, we headed out of Tortuguero and on to Puerto Viejo to celebrate Julia´s 30th birthday!  On the way there, we got stuck behind 2 semi´s and tried for almost 30 minutes to pass them.  Finally there was a break in traffic and Jason floored it.  Unfortuntely we didn´t see the cop with the speedometer on the side of the road and we were pulled over.  To make a long story short, Jason didn´t get hauled off to Costa Rican prison, but was issued a $50 ticket and was told he can no longer drive in Costa Rica.  Julia took the wheel and we all made it in one piece. 

We spent a couple days on the beach just relaxing and enjoying our amazing rooms at Banana Azul.  Jason and Willits took some surfing lessons and Julia and Travis headed to the Sloth Sanctuary.  We were so pooped from playing in the waves all day on Julia´s birthday that we ended up just ordering pizza and playing cards until the late hour of about 8 PM when Jules passed out in the hammock and Jason passed out in the room.  Julia and Travis headed to San Jose Monday to catch their flight Tuesday - we were sad to see them go.  I love seeing Julia and it was great meeting Travis.  Julia found us amazing places to stay while they were here, it was nice to have a break from hostels and dormatories!  Thanks Julia!

When we parted ways; Jason, Willits and I crossed the border and headed to Bocas del Toro, Panama.  While we were in Puerto Viejo we ran into some great Aussie friends, Trevor and Kay that we met in Utila, so we ended up spending most of our time in Bocas catching up with them.  We took a $20 tour which included 2 snorkeling spots, watching wild dolphins swim, and some swimming on a beautiful beach called Red Frog beach.  I highly recommend this to anyone in Bocas.  I went to Bocas with my girlfriends 5 years prior and spent our nights at Pargo Rojo, which unfortuntely is closed now (Bernard and his coconut cheesecake have never been forgotten!) so we ended up staying at a new hostel called Gran Kahuna.  It sucked.  It was loud and the fans hardly worked so we ended up sweating all night.  Plus, the last night there I was attacked by something and now have a huge red bite\bump area on my body we have named Africa, due to its shape.  Awesome. 

Willits only has a few days left here, so we decided to head back through San Jose, Costa Rica and spend some time on the Pacific coast in a town called Jaco.  Again, I was here 5 years ago and boy has this place changed.  It reminds me more of Waikiki or some resort beach city more than Costa Rica.  But we found a decent hostel, Cabinas Jaco Mar, with a fridge and tv - so we´ve ended up staying here 4 nights.  The first day here we took a long walk on Playa Hermosa and watched the surfers and realized the waves were too big for the guys to attempt to ride, so we headed back to Jaco and rented some boards and spent the afternoon at the beach.  We went back the next day for more surfing - I tried it and have decided it´s not my thing, so I bought a sarong and laid on the beach watching the guys. 

Today we decided to spend the day deep sea fishing.  It was so much fun!  The day started out full of rain and no bites….but we did spot 3 hump back whales and 2 turtles.  Our trip was from 7:30 until 12:30 and by 10:30 I was pretty freaking bored.  We were 24 miles off the coast and decided to head back.  And then……a bite…..and 2……….Jason immediately jumped up and took one rod while the captain grabbed the other.  Capt´n lost his fish, but Jason continued to reel in.  After about 10 minutes of reeling, and one extremely sore hip, the fish was caught!  We estimated it to be about 25 pounds of yellowfin tuna!  AHHHHH yeah!!!!  We cut some up on deck and partook of it right away.  I didn´t love it as I´m used to my shashimi being really cold…but the capt´n fileted it for us and we´ve found a local restaurant to clean and cook it up for us tonight.  I can´t wait!

Tomorrow we´ll head to Quepos and Manuel Antonio until Willits leaves Tuesday morning and then we´ll decide where to go from there.  We´re in Costa Rica for 2 more weeks and then will head back to the states until Sept. 18th when we fly to Bangalore, India.  

Jason is working on recovering our pictures………..keep your fingers crossed!  All of our pictures from the last of Utila until now are on this memory card and if we can´t get the computer to read them…….it´s a sad sad day at bubblesandbugs.com.

Ciao for now!

Pura Vida!

Willits, Julia, and Travis arrived on August 2nd and it’s been a whirlwind ever since. On Sunday morning we picked up our rental car and headed north to La Fortuna. We stayed at an amazing place called, Arenal Observatory Lodge. Just look at the views of Volcano Arenal from our rooms!

This place was beautiful and Cesar at the front desk took good care of us. And the free breakfast was SO good! The volcano put on quite a show for us too - when we first arrived we heard a few rumbles and soon figured out that it was not thunder. At night we could watch the lava flowing from the comfort of our rooms. It was crazy!  (or as Jason says, ¨Nutty!¨)

The first day in La Fortuna, we decided to just relax by the pool and hot tub and decide our plans. Monday we took the Sky Treks Canopy Tour. This was by far the best canopy tour I’ve done. The longest line was over 2400 feet and we were over 600 feet above ground. We soared through clouds and trees and our guides were fantastic. I highly recommend this.

The next day we went with Wave Expeditions and did the Class IV white water rafting trip down the River Toro. It was one of the mose fun rafting trips I’ve taken. We were fed pineapple and watermelon on our morning break and then Jason, Willits, and Travis decided to take the next rapid without the boat. They went down (helmets and PFD’s) with only a few scrapes and bruises, but seemed to have a great time. Unfortunetly I don’t have any pictures of the river. But Travis bought the CD of about 75 pictures from the rafting company, so hopefully he’ll share a few.

That evening we went to Baldi Hot Springs. We decided on this one because it was about $40 less than Tabacon….but it was still great. We were entertained watching people being thrown around like rag dolls on the waterslide and we hopped around to the different pools that ranged from about 90-117 degrees. It was a perfect end to a few busy days.

Yesterday we made the trek down the 8 km bumpy road from our hotel for the last time and headed to Tortuguero. We drove to La Pavona, parked the car and took an hour boat ride through the canals to arrive at Casa Marbella B&B. We walked around for a bit, grabbed some caribbean dinner at Miriam’s and then headed to the beach from 8-10 pm to watch a GIANT green turtle lay her eggs on the beach. This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed. These turtles lay eggs 5 times per year and they are all over the beach. We were put in groups, because apparently about 700 people were viewing this last night. So we just watched one turtle during the entire 2 hour process. Taking pictures is illegal, as it disturbs the turtles, but if you google ¨Tortuguero green turtle eggs¨ and look at the images, you’ll get an idea of what we saw.

This morning we woke up at 5:30 to go on a canal tour of the Tortuguero National Park. It started our a little slow (and rainy!) but we ended up spotting howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, spider monkeys, parrots, toucans, a caymen, an otter and a whole lot of other birds that i don’t remember. Now we are just hanging out today (in the rain!) and tomorrow we head to Puerto Viejo for the next 4 days.

Here is a picture of the sunset we saw last night from our hotel dock:

It´s pouring rain and we all just took a 3 hour nap. Now it’s time to kick the boys butts in spades.  Have I mentioned the RAIN???

Cheers!

Taking full advantage of free, semi-fast internet in Granada

Yes, that’s right. Our hostel, Hostel Oasis, offers free internet AND a free 10 minute phone call each day. So last night I got to speak with my parents and my niece McKayla (hi Kayla!) - it was awesome.

First off, a huge shout out to my friend Jenny @ www.jen-and-steve.com for creating a lovely, new banner for our site. If you don’t see it, just hit refresh. Jenny has offered her services to keep our banner fresh as we travel throughout the world. And if you are in need of a graphic designer, check our her site www.pumpkinjuice.com. She’s amazing!

Today Jason and I woke up at 6 AM and headed to Volcano Mombacho. We paid 190 Cordobas ($1 is about 20 Cordoba) for entry to the park and a ride to the top. At the top we hiked 1.5 kilometers around one of the craters and then stood on a platform for an amazing view of Granada, Lake Nicaragua, Laguna de Apoyo, and Volcano Masaya.

We decided to do the Canopy Tour on the way back down the mountain. It was only $28 for 16 zip lines, and Jason had never done one, so we went for it. It was awesome! However, the guides kept insisting we give them our camera and we kept insisting on taking our own. I finally agreed to let him take a picture of Jason and together on a bridge near the end of the trip - and the guy took off with our camera. He kept saying he was going to take a video of us at the end and I told him about 9 times, very forcefully, to give me back the camera. He didn’t. We did however get the camera back with some videos, but the guys lost their tip for being such jerks about taking our camera. We are a little over protective, but I think we have the right to be. The afternoon ended on a high note when we spotted about 7 howler monkeys in the trees above.

We are heading to Laguna Apoyo tomorrow, hopefully to stay a night if we can get a room. Then it’s off to the beach and some surf lessons!