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
Showing posts with label Nicoya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicoya. Show all posts
Sunday, February 21, 2010
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
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