technical difficulties ! photos later .....

rararara sorry we´ve been horrible about updating this thing. Working backwards again...

BOCAS DEL TORO, PANAMA 

We arrived here yesterday, a small archipelago by the northern Caribbean coast of Panama. To cross our last border, we had to walk across the most unstable looking bridge I´ve ever been on, made of sheets of wood nailed together with gaping loose holes everywhere. Trucks insisted on crossing the extremely narrow bridge at the same time as us, and if you weren´t fast enough you could easily get pushed into the river like pebbles.

This island is a lot different than the other ones we´ve been on. The roads are wide and actually paved for one thing. There´s just one main road lined with local restaurants and eateries, tiendas, and of course the locals selling their artisans on the sidewalks. The island is also overpopulated with tourists.

Last night was ladies night at Aqua Lounge, a bar across the water that you had to pay $1 for a boat ride, but they had free drinks till 10 so Nina, Fiona (girl from London), and I headed over to socialize with some other travelers, and made plans for our next summer´s trip as well. The bar started filling up with more tourists around 11 or 12, and started turning into a reckless frat fest like thing, so Nina and I bounced in hope to find a more local scene back on the main island but to no avail ! We ended up walking around buzzed, and found ice cream and some kind of coconut sweet thing to munch on till 2 am before heading to bed.

We cancelled our plans to snorkel today because of the overcast weather.  We´ll probably do some beach bumming. Bocas is nice but it´s oh so very touristy. Meeting other travelers is fun, but meeting the locals has been one of the biggest highlights for both of us. We use less and less Spanish as we moved down from Costa Rica. It´s nice that it´s civilized in the sense that you don´t have to worry about no toilet paper in the stalls, or about bugs in your bed, or the sanitary shadiness of your food, and you get significantly less cat calls and ¨chinitas bonitas¨ here. But still I miss the wildness of the people. I guess it´s a good transition into American life though.

PUERTO VIEJO, CR

Puero Viejo was a pit stop in Costa Rica before heading into Panama. It´s a small beachy-surfer town on the coast, also loved by tourists and travelers, with the sweet smell of marijuana walking around the streets with a jammin reggae vibe. We got here late afternoon after a long day of traveling by boat and bus from Tortuguero, so even though this town is known as the party town, we were wiped out from our long trip and ended up knocking out from 9pm-9am. We move so quickly from each town and city, and these days that we travel are the most tiring unfortunately. We woke up to really strong delicious coffee (whose caffeine I felt in me the whole day! guh !) and Nina´s fruit shake at a place called Bread & Chocolate.We love their supermarkets though.

TORTUGUERO, CR

Tortuguero is known for its National Park and its turtles, but the town itself is actually very shanty with not much going on, except maybe some narcotic trafficking. Our friends in San Jose warned us about this place, but we insisted, and checked into a hostel right by the sea, dark and strong. That night we got here, we went out on a ¨turtle tour¨ from 10pm and walked along the pitch black beach with our friendly and er, touchy guide, Rubin. After walking for a good hour and a half, we found her ! A leather back mama turtle, 1 meter and 30 inches i think they said. We kneeled in the dark on the sand a foot behind her with our red light, as she popped out her white baby eggs two or three at a time into the hole she dug. She then buried them with her big hands and back legs with love. You could feel the strength of her winged movements under your feet. So amazing as we stood on the sand around us littered with egg shells of other babies that didn´t make it.

Other than the turtle experience, Tortuguero is for overpriced tours. The morning after, we went on a slow 3 hour canoe ride around the canals and saw some baby alligators, turtles, birds, and iguanas with Rubin again. The better tour was on our boat ride from Tortuguero to Limon on our way to Puerto Viejo, where we saw a few big alligators, flamingos, and a few sloths ! Their jungle is crazy though. So dense and heavy and distinct and raw like vegetables.

SAN JOSE, CR

After saying goodbye to Nicaragua, we took a bus from the border to San Jose which is where I got my backpack stolen. It was stupid really. Some guy put my backpack above me to help me sit down, and I fell asleep, and when we got to San Jose, I woke up to no backpack. I cried on the taxi ride over to the Peace Embassy, and swallowed a whole bar of chocolate before going to bed. And then that was that. It´s all just stuff really, and kind of freeing not to have any of it. Except I´m still heartbroken over losing all my rolls of film. And I´m sorry I lost everyone´s gifts ! But no fear .... everyday has been amazing.

San Jose was really rainy. It rains religiously from the afternoon to late afternoon, sometimes into evening. We stayed with our friends who fed us like queens ! And the room they gave us felt like a hotel room compared to what we were used to. We got lots of love. The city itself is nothing too special though. We walked around, I bought an extra tshirt and some underwear, and wrote some postcards at a cafe called El Cafe del Correo to take haven from the rain.

We are almost done ! Tomorrow we are on to Panama City. It´s bittersweet to think about home. I´m so proud of us that we actually did it ! We are doing it !!

´Climb a volcano´: CHECK!

Isla de Ometepe did us good. She had so much to offer. The island is a hidden treasure surrounded by Lake Nicaragua. Most of the roads are still unpaved and rocky, except for a few main ones. The nature and diverse geological environments that make up this island are heavily protected by UNESCO and the government. The land attracts many ecological reserves which prohibit over-industrialization. Here you can dare to challenge and come face to face with the creation.

(our hostel)

When we got to Playa Santo Domingo, we thought we were on vacation because of the strip of hostels along the beach. And not too far up the road is a `natural pool` which is a popular must-see. But honestly, nada más. Otherwise, it was a quiet sparsely populated area. 

Volcán Concepción (right) and Volcán Maderas (left)

There are two very majestic volcanoes whose peaks rarely see the sun: Concepción and Maderas. We climbed the smaller of the two but nonetheless a rigourous off-the-beaten-track climb. Volcán Maderas is covered in dense forest. Dry forest, cloud forest, and rainforest. You`re pretty much lost without a guide. We climbed up one trail and down another in order to see the different faces of the volcano. Our guide, Jarold, a true Isla boy born and raised, with remarkable cheekbones and profile, climbs the volcano 2-4 times a week. The climb usually takes 4-5 hours going up, and 4 hours going down. 

We woke up at 4am, scarfed down breakfast to catch a bus (that we missed), and hiked about 2.5km to the foot of the volcano. From there we took off at 7am after obesrving some pathetic samples of petroglyphs and began our hike through steep rocky terrain, setting our pace at super-cardio-double-time. Our shirts were saturated with sweat and ready to be wrung out a half hour in. The beginning was rough, physically, mentally. I had to distract my mind from the pain from my knees and hamstrings from hoisting myself up and the 2+ liters of water in our backpacks. Then we entered a more foresty area and once in a while, Jarold would halt and let out a barbaric bellow in search of howler monkeys. We heard them bickering with cappuchin monkeys, in addition to parrots, frogs, snakes, turkeys, all kinds of nasty bugs. 

Then, we got to a very tranquil and wet forest once we got to a higher elevation. Different altitudes allow for different vegetation to grow, and it was interesting that it was significantly much quieter with a lot less animals. This volcano literally has its own cloud hovering at the top and it rains there everyday all year, except for the month of April. If you can imagine, everywhere you look is a green tangly array of moss and vines against a smokey white, and crystal-like raindrops speckled evenly on every leaf. But I couldn`t even imagine a world so hidden away and unimpressed by people before actually standing in that very environment. How to describe it... nature can be messy in a very perfect way. 

At this point we were walking through cloud. (No, it`s not tangible.) The trees got bigger/wider/stranger and the climb harder. All of a sudden it turned into an obstacle course. We climbed over and slid under wet boulders, branches, vines, fallen trees, roots, all the while slipping and sliding through thick deep mud on our hands, knees, seats, like a video game and anything was fair game to get you through to the next level. Once we got to the point where the mud had snuck through the mesh of our sneakers and was sloshing between our toes, we let go all reservation and just had a fiesta in our muddy playground. Four hours after take off, we reached the highest point of the volcano. There lived these old trees with arms and arms of rebellious branches which grew in every which way. Seriously, they just did whatever they wanted. Jarold called this dread-like species, `rasta` trees (Good one Jarold!)

Most mountains you climb reward you with a worthy vista to quench your weary eyes, or a forceful wind to dab away your sweat, but there was no such view, or breeze; the reward here was a rather untraditional one. We actually had to climb down to reap the glory of this strenuous struggle between Girl vs. Volcano. We made our way into the crater of the volcano where there was a small clearing and a lake from all the gathered rainfall. The walls of the crater were invisible in the cloud when we first reached the inside, but no more than 5 minutes later, the walls magically appeared out of the fog and the entire crater was visible. Like magic. And there was no greater reward than to sit there in awe at this little pearl of a lake enveloped by this beastly volcano, while savoring our packed sandwiches and trail mix. 

Jarold was impressed by our Speedy Gonzalez pace escalating the volcano so he told us the descent would be nothing. Wttfffff. We totally undermined the difficulty level of our descension and our knees yelped in pain from the impact going at Tarzan speed. Jarold would disappear 5 meters ahead and appear outta nowhere to point out an orchid or a ¨monkey´s tail¨or a snake. This complete nature boy loves his tabacco. He went through more than half his Marlboro reds in the duration of our hike. It´s been 5 years since he started this job. His lungs or his knees, sooner or later, one or the other will unfortunately catch up to him.

As we descended, we saw huge fallen trees that had literally been strangled by these little root-like vines, stealing the trees´nutrients. When a storm hits, the enormous trees can´t even hold themselves up anymore and fall to the ground with their roots sticking up to the sky. Seeing the aftermath of these merciless and fatal vines was pretty phenomenal.

 (mean face)

We came, we saw, we conquered the shit out of that volcano! .. I remember how small and claustrophobic, and scared and helpless I sometimes felt on that huge thing, completely at the hands of Mother earth. Truth. We got our asses whooped. 

Biggest reward on this entire hike for me was when we almost reached ground level and were greeted by a large family of howler monkeys. One lil Curious George came up close to drop a deuce on Yuka´s head. Luckily, she knew what was coming and escaped. We´d seen them so many times before but never so damn close. The real treat was when we discovered a tiny fricken newborn securely attached to its mama´s bosom. Tan precioso. 

So that was Volcán Maderas, the highlight of Isla de Ometepe, which was the highlight of Nicaragua. We walked like grandmas until the pain wore off. But we´ll never forget this lil island´s gift to us, and it´s so cliché but I couldn´t help thinking how grateful I am for the arms and legs that allowed me to have this experience. I´m also very grateful I didn´t once have to squat behind a bush on that volcano. 

¡¡¡BYE NiCARAGUA!!!

10 Days and Counting

Day 20 Rewind.

This morning we woke up early so we could get our laundry done. Handwashing and drying takes up alot of time, and space. Not to mention nothing feels completely clean, and everything stretches. We took it slow this morning for once, now that we´re back on our own schedule. Yuka drew the door of our $4 hostel as I drew on my eyebrows. A promising new day.

We arrived to Isla de Ometepe this evening, an island on a lake in Nicaragua made by volcanic rocks millions of years ago. On the island itself there are 2 huge volcanos whose peaks were wrapped in dark ominous clouds lit up by flashes of lightning as our boat pulled up to the island. So exhiliarating. It got dark quick, but our taxi driver assured us it´s a really safe island and everyone´s chill. Horses and cows roam free by the roads, and look so much happier than those we saw in Granada.

We had high expectations for Granada, but it was aiite. The cathedrals and churches and buildings were similiar to the ones in Antigua with their colonial design, but the mercado definitely overshadowed the pretty buildings. The mercado was dirty, noisy, and wreaked of all kinds of nasty odors. Typical.

Before getting to Granada, we left from Honduras, where we met Yama-chan, a 28 yr old dude from Japan on his voyage around the world. In the past 2 years, he had traveled from Korea through southeast Asia, through Europe, Egypt and Morocco, NY and LA, Australia, and now making his way through Central America on a similiar route as ours. And then through South America. He´s only had 2 weeks of Spanish class, and his English sucks. I don´t know how he gets around, but he has absolutely no problem asking the locals for an ounce of weed. We stayed at the hostel together with him in Granada and it was nice to have a threesome for a lil bit. Mike, you two have some very striking similiarites, it´s a little trippy sometimes! He´s a Japanese version of you. We may meet up here in Isla tomorrow when he comes.

Honduras was an interesting one. Our original plan was to check out the Mayan Ruins of Copán, but we got in touch with Claudia, one of our contacts, who opened up her small house to us for a couple nights. Her house was tiny but packed with 3 generations of family. So we stayed there in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, which is extremely hilly and... city-like..? We went up to El Picacho, on top of a hill looking over all of Tegucigalpa. It was incredible. So many colorful houses scattered over the hilly terrain of Tegus. We also went to do a mini service project in one of the poorest communities, where the parents don´t know how to read and have tons of kids, and the kids don´t go to school because they have to work, and most of these families don´t have toilets. The recent rain and hurricane weather caused mudslides and trashslides devastating a lot of the poorly constructed shacks placed on these hillsides. From a far, Tegucigalpa has a magnificent view worth enjoying and taking several pictures of. But when you zoom in on these houses and families, it´s a harsh reality. We planted two little baby trees and they named them Yuka and Nina. Even though Honduras was frankly a very uncomfortable experience, it was a valuable one.

Before Honduras we had gone to El Salvador. Getting there was terrible. We got on a camiñeta (basically a pimped out schoolbus with flames or sharkfins painted with outrageous colors) and got to scary Guatemala City where we transferred to a bus to El Salvador. Little did we know, we were getting jipped, once again. And little did we know, the bus was going to El Salv, but only to the border, not to San Salvador, the capital. Once we neared the border, the traffic was impossible, trucks were backed up for about a mile. So we jumped off with our backpacks and walked the rest of the way to the Guatemala/El Salv frontier, being led by a very handsome young fellow. From there we had no choice but to hop into a sketchy taxi to catch a bus from a different city. We almost died four times on that taxi ride. Imagine. 4 cars passing at the same time. And imagine those 4 cars passing about 4 cars at a time. Half way through our driver buckles his belt. At least we know he wasn´t tryna get killed.

There were so many other complications along the way with taxis, buses, and getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere kinda stuff, but we finally arrived at the house where we had arranged to stay. The Cerén family owns a smallll house in the country and they kept saying they wish they could offer more than their humble house but that they were so lucky and happy to have us, going as far as saying we were God´s blessing to them. The parents sell chocolate and cheese, but just like everyone else, it´s a hard knock life. They have 4 boys and 1 girl, but only Adriana and lil Rodrigo were at home during our stay. The family basically put their life on hold to attend us wherever we needed to go. But we had so much fun just staying at their house, where we shared such good conversation in our awkward Spanish. We played cute lil games, the kind you learn at camp, and watched lil Rodrigo perform simple magic tricks. The morning before we left, we had a little water balloon fight. It was so easy to fall in love with this family, and promised them and ourselves, we had to come back. El Salvador isn´t a very pretty place. It´s actually a very unattractive place. The land just looks overworked and tired, and you step on trash and sewage everywhere you go. But because of the Cerén family, El Salv is like a little gem. Like a lil treasure in our hearts.

Before El Salv, we had a cute vacation-like weekend in Antigua, the colonial getaway that everyone raves about. Our initial impression - this is too romantic for us, the two very single ladies that we are. But Antigua had lots to offer. During the day we checked out the fun market area, full of colors and patterns and purses and jewelry and gifts, it was trippy. We checked out a coffee shop run by a crazy old white man from Cali, who claims to have made unprecedented findings in the world of coffee-making. His shop´s cleanliness was questionable, keeping honey in used Jose Cuervo bottles, but his coffee was a deep earthy delight. Other than that, the street and buildings and central park area are all very scenic and cute.

We also decided to check out Antigua´s nightlife. We went to bar after bar, each one more dead than the one before. Finally we went to Sin La Ventura, where the locals from Antigua and Guat City come to dance and party. Once you step in, they just draw you up in nets like fish. And the guys are more than willing to teach you salsa, merengue, even when they´re playing reggaeton.

Next day we were supposed to leave for our next stop, but we decided to stay and see more of Antigua. As we stepped out of our hostel, this blonde girl starts waving from across the street. It was LISA. From Tikal, whose pictures I took for her and promised to upload on FB but never got her last nname and felt really bad. What a small ass world. We made plans to meet that night and after a few drinks and a shot with the bartender to celebrate our last night in Antigua, we returned to Sin La Ventura, where we met some very chill LA/Guat boys, César, Lester, and Henry, looked out for us and showed a good time, all the while bashing our Celtics. Tough exterior, but all softies! One of our funnest nights so far.

So that brings us up to date pretty much.

Mañana we explore Isla de Ometepe, a candidate for the eighth world wonder. Our 21 yr old taxi driver offered to give us an all day tour tomorrow and show us everything. $60 and he´s all ours for the day. Still pending...

They might not recognize us as gringas anymore, we´re about the same skin color as everybody else.

Soonia and ladies at home, we´re calling a mask party once we´re back. Clean our all this dirt from Mexico, Belize, Guate, El Salv, Honduras, Nica, CR, and Panamá all stuck up in our pores.

And I can´t wait to download Latin America´s Top 100 chart!

Athkolá! (Hola in Tzutujil, the local Mayan tongue in Santiago, Guatemala)

It was a long trip to get from Flores to Santiago! As follows....

• Flores --> Guatemala City (9pm-4:30am bus)
• Guat. City --> "the mountains" (2.5 hours bus)
• "The mountains" -->Sololá (Hitchhiked! ...Oops!)
• Sololá -->Panahachel (20 mins bus)
• Panahachel -->Santiago (30 min boat across Lake Atitlán)

For the bus ride from Guatemala City to somewhere in the mountains, we took the local bus, also known as the "chicken bus," most likely because people are stuffed into these vehicles like chickens in a coop. In a row of 2 seats, it¨s likely to have 6 people squished against each other; as this was our case.  While Nina took a nap, I made friends with the guy sitting next to me. His name was Jasuan, a military lieutenant working with narcotic trafficking and kidnapping. He said he sat down next to us for our security from robbers that are common on these local buses. He told me he even had a gun on him, which kept hitting into my side (kinda scary, kinda hot...puaha just kidding). He told me his dream is to go to grad school to study international relations and later to work in the government again for his country. He has two small daughters that he only gets to see 8 days a month because of his work schedule, and  the day I met him was the day he was going back home to them. He was nice; without him we wouldn¨t have known to get off at a random stop in the middle of the mountains.

Santiago is a very small traditional Mayan village nestled in between big green mountains. It feels almost like Peru ! (I only say that because I¨ve always wanted to go.) Most of the women and the elders wear traditional clothing and they are so pretty. Their blouses are colorful, intricate, and patterned uniquely with flowers embroidered around their collars. The men wear sombreros and striped shorts with patterned wrap-around belts. These beautiful blues, purples, reds, and hints of gold thread are contrasted by the luscious curvature of the green mountains overhead who also sport a string of soft white clouds around their necks like ornaments, too. This is the scenery that I experienced when I first got off the boat. It still rings true, but if you go deeper into the village, it¨s very dusty with pollution, poverty, and the rest of it. But still everything is brightened by nature and the people.

Right now we are staying at a school associated with Guatemala¨s Peace Embassy. Unfortunately our planned service project fell through again because the goverment closed down all the schools this week to help recover from the recent torrential downpour. Entonces, we¨ve been doing some gardening, helping to clear out the damages done on 2 of their 4 gardens.

There are also 7 European volunteers staying here as well who are part of a 2 month program, helping out in local schools and medical centers. They are friendly and from a few different parts of Europe. You should see our dinner table. It¨s filled with conversations in French, Czech, Spanish, English, and Estonian. Nina and I try to contribute with some Japanese.

Today is Day 10 out of 30. I feel like we¨ve been traveling for weeks now. Everyday is full and different. Tomorrow we are parting Santiaguito and moving on to Antigua for 2 days to wrap up Guatemala. Even though we are usually dead tired by 10pm, I feel so alive! There is so much to take in and give back.

There is nothing like waking up to the drill like sounds of a corn machine making tortillas at 6am outside your street. Really, really.

& Love, love.

PS. Photos from Tikal:

Our guide through Tikal, Nixon ! The best.

We climbed 2 of these ! Hell yeah.