BubblesandBugs.com - Travel and Scuba

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

quick update

here is a quick update bullet style:

• After Jaco, we went to Quepos and Manuel Antonio
• Willits missed the park because it is closed Mondays. We tried to sneak in through the crocodile reserve but were promptly kicked out
• Cindi and I went back to the national park Tuesday. It was cool …but not that cool willits!! haha . We were lucky enough to see about 10 white faced monkeys for about 20 minutes. The closest one was about 6 ft from us. Looked like the monkey from Friends. Also saw a sloth and hung out on the beautiful beaches where racoons were stealing peoples stuff.
• We then worked our way to Tamarindo beach..with a stopover in Nicoya. We had to take the ferry from PuntaRenas to Playa Naranjo…then busses to Tamarindo
• Right when we got to Tamrindo, we tried to fix our pictures. Not sure what is wrong…but we will wait a week until we get home to recover them….we hope.
• While waiting for the pics, cindi pulled up an article about the fecal pollution in Tamarindo. There are supposed to be 400 parts of fecal matter in 3.3 oz for it to be safe. Tamrindo has 3.3 million parts of fecal matter. Good thing our hotel has a pool.
• Last night we went to Witches Rock Surf Camp and ate Nachos ¨as big as your ass¨

Last but not least, We have booked our Tickets to India. We leave on Sept 18th for 5 weeks of India, Nepal, Tibet, and hopefully Everest base camp.

To all the readers waiting for beer reports…i have them ready…just waiting to get our pictures ready. Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama beer reports will come in the first few days of Sept.

Can´t wait to be home for a few weeks, while getting India Visas. Planning on hitting a Mizzou tigers football game and hanging out with Sawyer and Ben.

Later

jason

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!

Perro Frito por fa vor!! -

yes…that´s right…fried dog would be better than the food in Nicaragua.  The best meal we had in the last week has been a 1$ hotdog in Granada.  There has been pizza, with what we think was rat tail sausauge, cheese that doesn´t seem like a dairy product, weird squash salad, spagetti that you could classify as radioactive, and i had some bacon that might make me never eat bacon again.  I have been utterly disappointed in the lack of street food in Nicaragua.  Everywhere else they have had grilled meats and typical dishes in abundance.  We had trouble finding anything local to eat.  Hopefully CR will be better.

That being said,  I wanted to give everyone an update on where things stand:

• we have just arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica
• It took about 11 hours by bus from San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
• We had zero trouble at the border and were welcomed very warmly into Costa Rica
• We spent the last week in Nicaragua…Granada, Laguna De Apoyo, and San Juan Del Sur.
• Our readers were right, Laguna De Apoyo was great.  We went totally blind based on a comment from a reader.  Thanks Sean!!
• If you are ever in Granada, make a stop at Crater´s Edge resort.  Most comfortable we have been on the entire trip.
• The beach in San Juan Del Sur proper is very pretty, but pretty much sucks.
• We finally figured out where everyone goes.  Maderas beach (just took the shuttle from Casa Oro).  Maderas was amazing.  Huge cliffs, clear water, fun waves, and lots of surfers (of all skill levels) to watch.   We went to the beach 2 days in a row.
• we slept like crap the last 2 nights in San Juan Del Sur.  we learned our lesson in staying for cheap next to a bar.  The first night was ok, but the 2nd they had a loud metal band playing and last night a poker tourney that sounded like Armageddon.  I swear there were 40 surfer guys singing Bob Marley at the top of their lungs for like an hour.
• We still can´t upload pictures.  The computer I am on now is locked in a huge Military grade cage, so I can´t plug in the USB reader.  More to come, I promise
• We are picking up Willits, Julia, and Travis at the airport tomorrow.  Can´t wait guys!!
• Then we are off to La Fortuna and Volcano Arenal for some zip lines, whitewater rafting, hot springs, and maybe a beer or 2…haha

Later

jason