The last few days in Costa Rica have been incredible. Adventure at every turn, with each successive thing seemingly more grand that the previous. Firstly, I finally was able to access my money that had been sent down, which has made life a whole lot easier and much more relaxed, though it was good to see how far I could go on that small amount of money in what is the most expensive country in Central America. So I figured that I had to splurge a little bit. By splurge I mean that I bought a delicious jar of peanut butter and a thing of jam. I know, it really is the high life. I also caved and bought some McDonald´s as well. This place really is a representation as to what is happening here is Costa Rica, there is some loss of culture for the people here. The teens would rather eat there than their own typical food. It is quite evident the westernization that is occurring here, and the effect of high amounts of wealthy tourism on the area. The country is seemingly now just the tropical playground for the North Americans and Europeans. At the same time I cannot complain all that much because it has provided me with some incredible experiences so far.
The other day, while in the cool and misty Cloud Forests of Monteverde, I had the opportunity to go for a canopy tour. This was an amazing experience that I have never felt before. We made out way up into the trees, and were outfitted with harnesses and gloves for the trek. I climbed the first tower, was latched in and stepped off the platform to fly through the trees. This was very much the case for all the trek, flying above and through the canopy, with views only a bird can every really hope to get. We were also given the chance to repel down from the tree to a Tarzan swing. The repel wasn't all that bad, it was the swing that I was most concerned with. All you did was step of this platform high in the trees with a bit of free fall and then let the rope take you: At first I wasn't sure if I could do that but decided the more I think about it the less chance there is I will do it. So I stepped up,and took the leap...and yes it was well worth it. That would have been great if that was where the day ended, but there were still a few more cables to do and the final Superman line. Superman was a feeling like no other, with your feet help up parallel with the ground, as you fly over a canyon for over a kilometer. With my arms spread wide, a stupid grin on my face, and laughing like an idiot, I came the closest I have ever to actually flying, it was a surreal feeling.
After that, Dan and I continued on, with a bit of back tracking to a national park near the Nicaraguan boarder called Rincon de la Vieja. Once we arrived we set up our tents amid a plague of bugs and readied ourselves for the next days hike. This park has been called the Central American Yellowstone, because of all the earth activity in the area. The next day we hiked, and hiked, and hiked some more up through the jungle still we broke through to a bit of a clearing. But the hiking continued and we made our way up the mountain in a bit of a slippery scramble. After that we found ourselves on a knife edge ridge that provided some incredible views and the feeling like you were on top of the world. Again, if only that was where it ended. We made a bit of a drop down the side of this mountain, to an active volcano crater. This massive bowl filled with boiling water and the smell of sulfur was all to ourselves for a bit once some other tourists left. Incredible. Not to mention we could get as close to the edge if we wanted to, not a fence or safety rope to be seen. I guess this is Central America after all.
Once we made our way back to the bottom we were able to make our way around a small loop that you can hike. This area was filled with bubbling mud pits, hot springs, and gas spraying from the ground. It was amazing for me to experience cause I have never seen something like that. We continued on over to the other park entrance so that we could go and see the hot springs there, and camp for the night. Though very tired we made our way into the jungle with our head lamps on for a bit of a night hike to the hot springs, and was it worth. It was so nice to just soak in the warm water, and let the body relax. Smelling of sulfur and a fair bit tired, I slept incredibly.
And then today...I went kayaking in Costa Rica. It did not disappoint me in the least. We signed up for the class II and III trip which the guides reassured me that they were fine and that I would have no problem with them. Tranquillo. A bit apprehensive and a lot excited Dan and I made our way down the rocky Rio Balsa. It was such a good time and one of my dreams for the trip which I am so glad that I got to do. It was a good few hours of continuous rapid that were such a thrill and made for excitement from top to bottom. Only once did I have to swim and that was in part to my lacking judgment and part to a raft. I was trying to decide if I was going to leave the thin eddy and move on. I hesitated and was pulled under a raft that was in the way. A rocky ride down and a few scratch and dents more, but came out the other side of it all good and ready for more.
Costa Rica has been a wild ride so far and in the next few days we are going to make our way over to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica which is supposed to have a totally different cultural feel.
I am excited for what the next bit of time hold for me as we press on into the unknown and experience life along the way.
Bye for now
Mike
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Costa Rican Road and Money Woes
Costa Rica has been the next step of the journey. When I finished the last post, I was in Tamarindo on the northern part of the Nicoya Peninsula. That was an interesting place for me. It was quite beautiful there but had obviously been over run by tourism and there was really no local flavour to the place. It was basically Florida, in Costa Rica. It was also a bit of a stressful time for me there as well because apparently somewhere between Nicaragua and Tamarindo I lost my debit card, and didnt know where it may be. However, I did have my credit card, and thinking that would be fine it eased my mind for a bit until I needed to take out money. The option for me to cash advance was not put on my card so I couldn't take out money, and the supply that I had was quickly running down. So a few calls and stressful hours after that there was a Money Gram set up so that I could receive some money from my parents until I could get my debit card replaced. This happened on a Saturday and so the chance to take out money with the money gram would have to wait until Monday, and I was seriously low on cash. So extreme budgeting came into effect, which is incredibly difficult in a place like Costa Rica with prices very similar to Canada. Pushing my ability to be cheap and eat some less than spectacular meals, I waited till Monday. Then came a series of trips to different banks to try and access the money that had been wired down. One bank the system was down but I was referred to another. Well the next one didn't do money grams at all, but they know another that did. Turns out that one didn't do it either, so it turned into running around town trying to figure this out and getting more and more frustrated as the time went on, cause by now I have $0 in my possession. Thankfully Kale lent me some cash so that I could keep traveling, which was huge and really made my day and week for that matter. A good friend who stepped in for me and helped out when it was really needed.
So the past week has been the struggle to access this money that is down here but floating in some cyber bank of inaccessibility, which is going to be my next challenge. I however was able to Western Union myself some money today so that should be a big help till I get to Panama City and hopefully can get my debit card replaced and sent there. Oh the joys of traveling.
Other than that the time has been great. As I said in the last post, I am now traveling with an Australian named Dan Grec (http://dangrec.com/) which has been great. We continued our way down the Nicoya, stopping at some beautiful city's and just relaxing and enjoying the beach and some of the most beautiful places that this tropical paradise has to offer. Stopping in Samara, we were able to watch Avatar on some community center´s wall, enjoying some Cola and popcorn. Continuing on, even though we could have stayed there much longer, we went to Mal Pais and Santa Teresa. This was a quaint little surf town with some of the biggest and strongest waves I have ever felt. After that we moved onto Montezuma on the southern point of the peninsula. This was a chilled out Rasta town, with some of the most beautiful series of three waterfalls I have ever seen. We were able to scale the side of a hill to access the waterfalls at the top, and do some jumping. I know many of you who know me wont believe this but there was a 10m waterfall at the top, and yes, I jumped it after some hesitation and second guessing about 56 times. Well worth it and a huge confidence booster for me.
After that we moved back to the mainland after a neat ferry crossing. Now we are located in Monteverde in the Costa Rican Cloud forests. Stunningly beautiful and refreshingly cool change in temperature from the oppressive and humid heat of the coast. Today we went of a series of hikes which was great fun and had the chance to see yet another waterfall. This one was arguably more beautiful but we went able to jump from it. In total it was 90m top to bottom with some real cold water at the bottom, I tested that out, trust me its cold.
Tomorrow we are going to go and do a canopy tour in the Cloud Forest which should be pretty wild. This one is the biggest and longest in Costa Rica, with a 1km superman line...I'm going to fly. I will definitely let you know how that goes.
I am continuing to enjoy my trip and have some incredible adventures along the way. I hope that you have enjoyed the update, and I'm sorry that this was a bit of a poorly written piece. I will try to do better for you next time and be a bit more descriptive and exciting.
The road continues...
Bye for now
Mike
So the past week has been the struggle to access this money that is down here but floating in some cyber bank of inaccessibility, which is going to be my next challenge. I however was able to Western Union myself some money today so that should be a big help till I get to Panama City and hopefully can get my debit card replaced and sent there. Oh the joys of traveling.
Other than that the time has been great. As I said in the last post, I am now traveling with an Australian named Dan Grec (http://dangrec.com/) which has been great. We continued our way down the Nicoya, stopping at some beautiful city's and just relaxing and enjoying the beach and some of the most beautiful places that this tropical paradise has to offer. Stopping in Samara, we were able to watch Avatar on some community center´s wall, enjoying some Cola and popcorn. Continuing on, even though we could have stayed there much longer, we went to Mal Pais and Santa Teresa. This was a quaint little surf town with some of the biggest and strongest waves I have ever felt. After that we moved onto Montezuma on the southern point of the peninsula. This was a chilled out Rasta town, with some of the most beautiful series of three waterfalls I have ever seen. We were able to scale the side of a hill to access the waterfalls at the top, and do some jumping. I know many of you who know me wont believe this but there was a 10m waterfall at the top, and yes, I jumped it after some hesitation and second guessing about 56 times. Well worth it and a huge confidence booster for me.
After that we moved back to the mainland after a neat ferry crossing. Now we are located in Monteverde in the Costa Rican Cloud forests. Stunningly beautiful and refreshingly cool change in temperature from the oppressive and humid heat of the coast. Today we went of a series of hikes which was great fun and had the chance to see yet another waterfall. This one was arguably more beautiful but we went able to jump from it. In total it was 90m top to bottom with some real cold water at the bottom, I tested that out, trust me its cold.
Tomorrow we are going to go and do a canopy tour in the Cloud Forest which should be pretty wild. This one is the biggest and longest in Costa Rica, with a 1km superman line...I'm going to fly. I will definitely let you know how that goes.
I am continuing to enjoy my trip and have some incredible adventures along the way. I hope that you have enjoyed the update, and I'm sorry that this was a bit of a poorly written piece. I will try to do better for you next time and be a bit more descriptive and exciting.
The road continues...
Bye for now
Mike
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Ometepe Island and Separate Roads
Hello All
I'm going to begin with an apology for not updating sooner, as I have been without internet access for some time now, so now I suppose I have a lot to tell. Our time in San Juan came to a close with a night watching the Super Bowl, crazy to think that we could do that down here, but I guess that's the way it is in a town full of gringos (white people). It was really cool as well, because we were able to meet up with our South African friends, whom we stayed with in Guatemala. That was quite nice to see them again and chat about the travels. After some more good byes, and saying farewell to the sand and surf, we left with an American we met named Zach for the Ometepe Island. Now this place is absolutely beautiful. It is an island in the middle of lake Nicaragua, that has been formed by two volcanoes that joined in the middle forming an inhabitable and rather beautiful island. Once we arrived to the port in San Jorge, we took a rocky ferry over to the island, quite a nice 1.5 hour ride. When we were on the boat we met some other travelers and decided to go with them for a while and split some taxis along the way. We started off at Charco Verde which is a nice lake side town a chilled out and got to know each other a little better, while we all watched the sun set over the lake. The next day we continued over to a small spring, navigating the bumpy roads (if they can really be called that) to go swimming for the afternoon, which was nice and relaxing and a bit of an oasis for us. It was refreshing to swim in some fresh water again. After some time in the sun the whole crew taxied on to Finca Magdelana which is an organic coffee plantation on the side of one of the volcanoes. Beautiful to say the least, with great views of the other active volcano. Life is tough. It was so sweet to sit around the table and play some games with people that we had only met a short time ago and fell like we´ve known them for quite sometime.
After camping out under the Nicaraguan stars, 6 of us guys decided to climb the volcano that our hostel was perched on. Voclan Maderas is a dormant volcano with a small muddy lake in the crater at the top. The hike up was wet, slippery and slightly difficult to say the least. But oh how we were rewarded at the top. A beautiful little lake at the top and a really stunning concept that we were sitting in the bowl of a volcano. After some time of relaxation and taking in the beauty of it all, we decided to head down. Now I should have started by saying that we were supposed to have a guide to summit because it is supposedly tough to get up and down. Now getting to the summit was no big deal but getting down we may or may not have gotten lost and took some other paths to get to the bottom, making out trip a fair bit longer and leading us through some jungle, farmers fields and banana plantations. Its quite a fun time and definitely added to the adventure. I really loved that day, and my body let me know the next morning with some good aches to leave with.
The next day Ben, Kale and I all went our separate ways. Ben back to Guatemala, Kale down to Costa Rica, and I decided to stay another day on the Island before i left with my new traveling partner. It sucked cause I didn't get to say by to the guys because I had to get off the bus quickly which i though they were behind me but they were continuing on the next stop. It was great traveling with them and a pleasure to spend time doing something I love with them.
I'm assuming Ben made it to Guate, and Kale became an illegal alien in Costa Rica, but once that was sorted out he ended up in Tamarindo with me and I got to see him again.
Now I am in Costa Rica on the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean. I have started to travel with an Auzzie named Dan who has started his trip in Calgary, drove up to Alaska, and is now working his way down to the southern tip of South America. Check out www.theroadchoseme.com for some more information. It has been pretty wild traveling with him and I'm really enjoying it. Last night we camped out in Tamarindo. It was pretty crazy. After finally falling asleep i heard some people come to the camp sight and I figured that it was just a group of people coming in late. Oh how I was wrong...It turns out that there are 75-100 people that just moved in last night and they sure weren't quite about it. Its a combination family reunion, vacation, school trip craziness. So once i realized that my good night sleep was no longer a reality, decided that if you can beat 'em, join 'em, so i went out and talked with them for a while and used the lacking opportunity for sleep as a chance to practice my Spanish, which worked out well for me.
So now I'm going to continue my trip making my way down the Nicoya Peninsula with Dan and eventually make our way down to Panama.
I hope you all have enjoyed, sorry for the length and for being late in the update.
Bye for now
Mike
I'm going to begin with an apology for not updating sooner, as I have been without internet access for some time now, so now I suppose I have a lot to tell. Our time in San Juan came to a close with a night watching the Super Bowl, crazy to think that we could do that down here, but I guess that's the way it is in a town full of gringos (white people). It was really cool as well, because we were able to meet up with our South African friends, whom we stayed with in Guatemala. That was quite nice to see them again and chat about the travels. After some more good byes, and saying farewell to the sand and surf, we left with an American we met named Zach for the Ometepe Island. Now this place is absolutely beautiful. It is an island in the middle of lake Nicaragua, that has been formed by two volcanoes that joined in the middle forming an inhabitable and rather beautiful island. Once we arrived to the port in San Jorge, we took a rocky ferry over to the island, quite a nice 1.5 hour ride. When we were on the boat we met some other travelers and decided to go with them for a while and split some taxis along the way. We started off at Charco Verde which is a nice lake side town a chilled out and got to know each other a little better, while we all watched the sun set over the lake. The next day we continued over to a small spring, navigating the bumpy roads (if they can really be called that) to go swimming for the afternoon, which was nice and relaxing and a bit of an oasis for us. It was refreshing to swim in some fresh water again. After some time in the sun the whole crew taxied on to Finca Magdelana which is an organic coffee plantation on the side of one of the volcanoes. Beautiful to say the least, with great views of the other active volcano. Life is tough. It was so sweet to sit around the table and play some games with people that we had only met a short time ago and fell like we´ve known them for quite sometime.
After camping out under the Nicaraguan stars, 6 of us guys decided to climb the volcano that our hostel was perched on. Voclan Maderas is a dormant volcano with a small muddy lake in the crater at the top. The hike up was wet, slippery and slightly difficult to say the least. But oh how we were rewarded at the top. A beautiful little lake at the top and a really stunning concept that we were sitting in the bowl of a volcano. After some time of relaxation and taking in the beauty of it all, we decided to head down. Now I should have started by saying that we were supposed to have a guide to summit because it is supposedly tough to get up and down. Now getting to the summit was no big deal but getting down we may or may not have gotten lost and took some other paths to get to the bottom, making out trip a fair bit longer and leading us through some jungle, farmers fields and banana plantations. Its quite a fun time and definitely added to the adventure. I really loved that day, and my body let me know the next morning with some good aches to leave with.
The next day Ben, Kale and I all went our separate ways. Ben back to Guatemala, Kale down to Costa Rica, and I decided to stay another day on the Island before i left with my new traveling partner. It sucked cause I didn't get to say by to the guys because I had to get off the bus quickly which i though they were behind me but they were continuing on the next stop. It was great traveling with them and a pleasure to spend time doing something I love with them.
I'm assuming Ben made it to Guate, and Kale became an illegal alien in Costa Rica, but once that was sorted out he ended up in Tamarindo with me and I got to see him again.
Now I am in Costa Rica on the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean. I have started to travel with an Auzzie named Dan who has started his trip in Calgary, drove up to Alaska, and is now working his way down to the southern tip of South America. Check out www.theroadchoseme.com for some more information. It has been pretty wild traveling with him and I'm really enjoying it. Last night we camped out in Tamarindo. It was pretty crazy. After finally falling asleep i heard some people come to the camp sight and I figured that it was just a group of people coming in late. Oh how I was wrong...It turns out that there are 75-100 people that just moved in last night and they sure weren't quite about it. Its a combination family reunion, vacation, school trip craziness. So once i realized that my good night sleep was no longer a reality, decided that if you can beat 'em, join 'em, so i went out and talked with them for a while and used the lacking opportunity for sleep as a chance to practice my Spanish, which worked out well for me.
So now I'm going to continue my trip making my way down the Nicoya Peninsula with Dan and eventually make our way down to Panama.
I hope you all have enjoyed, sorry for the length and for being late in the update.
Bye for now
Mike
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
San Juan - Sun and Surf
Well right now Im in San Juan del Sur on the beautiful southern Pacific coast of Nicaragua. This place is quite beautiful, and a great place to continue the adventure of the trip. When I got here the one thing that San Juan reminded me of was Rio de Janerio, because its a bay city with a huge Jesus statue perched high on a hill over looking the city. At any stretch it is a beautiful place and a chilled out beach and surfer town.
At the end of the last post I had said how we were going to be going to Isla de Ometepe, which is an island formed by two volcanoes, one of which is active. Well earlier in the week we had heard from some people that there was going to be an evacuation of the island because it had shown an increase in seismic activity, and they though that it was going to blow, which would be rather devastating. However, we hadn't heard much more about it and then planned on continuing our trip there after a few days. Then the day that we decided to leave we saw a newspaper article saying that the island was being evacuated and the hostel had been trying to contact the ferries and they had not been responding so they figured that the a fore mentioned evacuation was happening, which was a bit of a downer, cause we figured we couldn't get to the island. It turns out that that wasn't true and we had been talking to some girls who were one the island and said that there was nothing going on there and that they had a great time. So we are going to go most likely after our time here in San Juan is up.
Anyways after this news about the island, we decided to reroute to San Juan, which really wasn't all that had a decision. So we along with another Canadian guy that we met, Quinn, left for the bus to Rivas and then to continue to San Juan. It was funny cause by the time that we arrived here in San Juan, many of the people that were at our hostel in Granada were here as well because of the same information. It was rather interesting on the bus because we had a guy try to convince us that we needed a taxi from Rivas to San Juan meanwhile we knew there was a bus. Totally unnecessary, but that's what come along with being a white traveler, you get people telling you you need things that you really don't and making things sound worse than they really are. So we got off the bus in Rivas, and went one us over, and wow, look at that...a bus to San Juan. So our journey continued.
One interesting point of this ride which sort of made me shake my head came when a some tourist got all mad at the guy who collects the money on the bus cause he charged him 5 extra Cordoba because he had his bags on the bus. He was getting really mad and angry over what is the equivalent of 25 cents. Some people.
But that aside San Juan has been great, we have had the chance to swim and even try surfing a few times, and it is defiantly infectious and addictive. Its pretty tough to get the hang of it and your body and ego take quite a beating, and you fall awkwardly off the board, but when you catch that one wave, even for a little bit it makes it all worth it. So now I'm basically a professional surfer with lost of sponsors and such, no big deal, so I will most likely move to Hawaii to continue to pursue this career.
Its crazy how fast the time is going here, in just over 3 weeks Ben and Kale are going to head home, and that will start a whole new trip for me, on my own. Ive really enjoyed it and and definitely looking forward to the next parts of this trip. And just as a clarification point, Ben had never left or was lost, i was going to write that in at the end of that one post, but I apparently forgot, slight over sight. He is fine and well, with his credit card, passport, and even his close and backpack too! I hope that put some minds at ease.
Anyways the next step of the trip will be to actually go to Ometepe, and spend some time there, unless we get some actual evidence of the evacuation, like maybe the island is up in flames or a large pillar of smoke and ash rising from the island or something like that.
Hope you have enjoyed
Bye for now
Mike (people here know me as Kelly Slater)
At the end of the last post I had said how we were going to be going to Isla de Ometepe, which is an island formed by two volcanoes, one of which is active. Well earlier in the week we had heard from some people that there was going to be an evacuation of the island because it had shown an increase in seismic activity, and they though that it was going to blow, which would be rather devastating. However, we hadn't heard much more about it and then planned on continuing our trip there after a few days. Then the day that we decided to leave we saw a newspaper article saying that the island was being evacuated and the hostel had been trying to contact the ferries and they had not been responding so they figured that the a fore mentioned evacuation was happening, which was a bit of a downer, cause we figured we couldn't get to the island. It turns out that that wasn't true and we had been talking to some girls who were one the island and said that there was nothing going on there and that they had a great time. So we are going to go most likely after our time here in San Juan is up.
Anyways after this news about the island, we decided to reroute to San Juan, which really wasn't all that had a decision. So we along with another Canadian guy that we met, Quinn, left for the bus to Rivas and then to continue to San Juan. It was funny cause by the time that we arrived here in San Juan, many of the people that were at our hostel in Granada were here as well because of the same information. It was rather interesting on the bus because we had a guy try to convince us that we needed a taxi from Rivas to San Juan meanwhile we knew there was a bus. Totally unnecessary, but that's what come along with being a white traveler, you get people telling you you need things that you really don't and making things sound worse than they really are. So we got off the bus in Rivas, and went one us over, and wow, look at that...a bus to San Juan. So our journey continued.
One interesting point of this ride which sort of made me shake my head came when a some tourist got all mad at the guy who collects the money on the bus cause he charged him 5 extra Cordoba because he had his bags on the bus. He was getting really mad and angry over what is the equivalent of 25 cents. Some people.
But that aside San Juan has been great, we have had the chance to swim and even try surfing a few times, and it is defiantly infectious and addictive. Its pretty tough to get the hang of it and your body and ego take quite a beating, and you fall awkwardly off the board, but when you catch that one wave, even for a little bit it makes it all worth it. So now I'm basically a professional surfer with lost of sponsors and such, no big deal, so I will most likely move to Hawaii to continue to pursue this career.
Its crazy how fast the time is going here, in just over 3 weeks Ben and Kale are going to head home, and that will start a whole new trip for me, on my own. Ive really enjoyed it and and definitely looking forward to the next parts of this trip. And just as a clarification point, Ben had never left or was lost, i was going to write that in at the end of that one post, but I apparently forgot, slight over sight. He is fine and well, with his credit card, passport, and even his close and backpack too! I hope that put some minds at ease.
Anyways the next step of the trip will be to actually go to Ometepe, and spend some time there, unless we get some actual evidence of the evacuation, like maybe the island is up in flames or a large pillar of smoke and ash rising from the island or something like that.
Hope you have enjoyed
Bye for now
Mike (people here know me as Kelly Slater)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
