Masaya
Otherwise known as Hammockland. Although best known for its artesans and the local handicraft stores (Phil thought it was extensive stores selling the same souvenirs rather than real artesans).
The handicraft pedalled by these artesans included lovely woodwork, hammocks and stuffed cane toads in suggestive positions, and stuffed crocodiles smoking pipes.
We ventured into the hammock district and found ourselves by the lake where we were bombarded by local children asking for photos, and generally up for a chat. Some spoke a couple of words of english, but as one of them had a birthday coming up, we bought them all ice-cream, particularly cause one of them gave us a lolly each. Good kids, a good indicator of a safe neighbourhood.
Although knowing we were travelling light, and promised ourselves not to buy anything excessive, we ended up purchasing two of the heavier, bulkier and yet very comfy models of hammock and hammock chair available and spent an interesting morning trying to wrap, pack, address and send some weirdly shaped packages home.
San Juan del Sur
We headed south for the weekend, to catch some sun and beachtime. It´s a bit of a gringo-town, but does have a strong fishing fleet and a curious japanese interest in it´s port area.... Karen´s japanese has come into it´s own, reading ¨No Entry¨ signs around the place. The place itself is a nice curved beach with cliffs on either end.
We finally found a hostal after four attempts, one of which is notable. We were invited to come in and see a room, we followed the woman in who then proceeded to take us into another guests room and start fixing the shower!! She´d apparently forgotten about us (in half a second) and both us and the guests we were left staring at weren´t sure what the hell was going on!
We took a boat out for a dive/snorkel to a place called Los Pacomas (I think), where visibility was about 4-5m and there were plenty of small spotted rays, a couple of morays and stone-fish and plenty to see, despite losing my guide on the second dive.... he was off chasing lobster (langosta). Karen enjoyed snorkelling, but was a little wary with large fish circling at one stage, and locals with spearguns.
One more thing, we´ve found a great little italian restaurante overlooking the beach and gorged ourselves on pizza and pasta. If you can get here, we recommend it, they even cook with power failures!
Sunday, July 23, 2006
18-19 July - Granada
Granada is an old spanish colonial city, founded in 1524 and it rocks! It has beautifully restored buildings, paved/tiled footpaths, good food, its safe and people are friendly. We got a couple of locals talking politics, and they love to express their attitudes and ideas about american investment, Sandinistas (political regime that has gripped the country for decades - see Wikipedia), and President Ortega.
July 19 was Sandinista Day - celebrated with large political rallies in Managua (the capital), it was not a good day to be a Gringo in Managua - as many a friendly Granadan told us!
We walked around heaps, admired the internal courtyards of the old colonial buildings (including our hostel) and we also said Goodbye to Kutuhya and Rachel... we celebrated in style with a good tapas evening and singing karaoke (Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Grease) with lesbians in a local bar! Don´t ask (but we do have photos).
Granada can really suck you in... a lovely place to stay for a long while (there´s lots of expats).... thumbs up from both of us!
July 19 was Sandinista Day - celebrated with large political rallies in Managua (the capital), it was not a good day to be a Gringo in Managua - as many a friendly Granadan told us!
We walked around heaps, admired the internal courtyards of the old colonial buildings (including our hostel) and we also said Goodbye to Kutuhya and Rachel... we celebrated in style with a good tapas evening and singing karaoke (Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Grease) with lesbians in a local bar! Don´t ask (but we do have photos).
Granada can really suck you in... a lovely place to stay for a long while (there´s lots of expats).... thumbs up from both of us!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
14-18 July - Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua
We headed over the border with our english friends, and straight to Ometepe Island. It is a large island with two conical volcanoes (Concepcion and Maderas) in the middle of lake Nicaragua, and is quite spectacular. The lake is huge (cant see to the other side) and very brown with its fresh water, and it is apparenly home to the only fresh water sharks in the world (which we didn't see).
Check out (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ometepe)
Anyway the ferry was like an indonesian boatpeoples boat - probably quite functional but lacking in several safety and other features... lifejackets, gangway or side rails anyone? (gangway was a plank of wood resting on the dock on one side, and sliding about on an tyre on the boat) And we thought the boxes of beer and other stuff being loaded by being slid down planks of wood while the boat rocked was definitely worth watching. But our bags and us made the hour long crossing safely, and we found ourselves a room, and yum fish dinner, and were happy to note that things are about half the price of costa rica. Its definitely poorer too- there are dirt floors, and things are not nearly as polished or slick as costa rica.
We slept in, had a huge breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit, and then visited Charco Verde, a lagoon and beach area. We went on a pleasant walk and spotted lots of monkeys including some very cute babies, and a group of little bats clinging to a tree pretending to be bark. Then back to town, to see their rodeo/festival. Lots of cowboys and girls riding horses down the streets in a parade accompanied by a band and noisy firecrackers. The rodeo itself was a little disturbing - one bull being harassed by about 10 guys (pulled, kicked, hit, cattle prodded) to get it all strapped up and ready for a rider and then once the guy is on, it was taunted futher with red flags. Rum and coke was flowing freely, so we ended up not watching the rodeo, but instead trying to convince a guy who befriended Kutaya that phil actually had 3 wives (me, Kutaya, and Rachel)
We made it to the other side of the island (an hour and half bumpy taxi ride) and to Finca Magdelena (a working coffee farm) which is at the bottom of Volcan Maderas, an old volcano with a crater lake. We climbed this volcano (a somewhat muddy 8 hour hike up and down), and felt the satisfaction of seeing a lake within a volcano within a lake! Pity about the cloud cover blocking our view out, but they don't call them cloud forests for nothing!
We also found out (check out Wikipedia) that the Concepcion volcano is ACTIVE! With a 6.2 richter scale eruption last September 05, spraying ash on climbers and local villages.
We came to leave this morning and found ourselves embarassingly short of cash in the right currency...had some US dollars, some cordobas but mainly colones from costa rica (we all thought everyone was carrying a bit more)... and we were either a 1 1/2 hour taxi ride or 3 hour bus trip from the nearest bank... oops. We had visions of us hocking our stuff, working for months or at least making the return trip to get the money and pay up. Negotiated getting the Finca taxi to take us to the bank and paying the driver, only to get to the bank and find it cant give cash advances with cards anyway, and wouldnt change colones either...oops again. But luckily they suggested a mini-supermarket could probably help, and yeah, after digging their card machine out of a box out of the back of the shop and charging a 10 percent fee, we were finally ok to leave the island! Moral of the stoy - need to re-instate the emergency US dollar fund tucked away in our bags somewhere!
Check out (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ometepe)
Anyway the ferry was like an indonesian boatpeoples boat - probably quite functional but lacking in several safety and other features... lifejackets, gangway or side rails anyone? (gangway was a plank of wood resting on the dock on one side, and sliding about on an tyre on the boat) And we thought the boxes of beer and other stuff being loaded by being slid down planks of wood while the boat rocked was definitely worth watching. But our bags and us made the hour long crossing safely, and we found ourselves a room, and yum fish dinner, and were happy to note that things are about half the price of costa rica. Its definitely poorer too- there are dirt floors, and things are not nearly as polished or slick as costa rica.
We slept in, had a huge breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit, and then visited Charco Verde, a lagoon and beach area. We went on a pleasant walk and spotted lots of monkeys including some very cute babies, and a group of little bats clinging to a tree pretending to be bark. Then back to town, to see their rodeo/festival. Lots of cowboys and girls riding horses down the streets in a parade accompanied by a band and noisy firecrackers. The rodeo itself was a little disturbing - one bull being harassed by about 10 guys (pulled, kicked, hit, cattle prodded) to get it all strapped up and ready for a rider and then once the guy is on, it was taunted futher with red flags. Rum and coke was flowing freely, so we ended up not watching the rodeo, but instead trying to convince a guy who befriended Kutaya that phil actually had 3 wives (me, Kutaya, and Rachel)
We made it to the other side of the island (an hour and half bumpy taxi ride) and to Finca Magdelena (a working coffee farm) which is at the bottom of Volcan Maderas, an old volcano with a crater lake. We climbed this volcano (a somewhat muddy 8 hour hike up and down), and felt the satisfaction of seeing a lake within a volcano within a lake! Pity about the cloud cover blocking our view out, but they don't call them cloud forests for nothing!
We also found out (check out Wikipedia) that the Concepcion volcano is ACTIVE! With a 6.2 richter scale eruption last September 05, spraying ash on climbers and local villages.
We came to leave this morning and found ourselves embarassingly short of cash in the right currency...had some US dollars, some cordobas but mainly colones from costa rica (we all thought everyone was carrying a bit more)... and we were either a 1 1/2 hour taxi ride or 3 hour bus trip from the nearest bank... oops. We had visions of us hocking our stuff, working for months or at least making the return trip to get the money and pay up. Negotiated getting the Finca taxi to take us to the bank and paying the driver, only to get to the bank and find it cant give cash advances with cards anyway, and wouldnt change colones either...oops again. But luckily they suggested a mini-supermarket could probably help, and yeah, after digging their card machine out of a box out of the back of the shop and charging a 10 percent fee, we were finally ok to leave the island! Moral of the stoy - need to re-instate the emergency US dollar fund tucked away in our bags somewhere!
Costa Rica review
Well thats it for Costa rica, we headed up the highway and had a fairly uneventful crossing into Nicaragua. We thought we'd summarise our thoughts of the country...
1. Not as safe as its made out to be - we heard so many stories of stolen stuff
2. Way too many tourists and hence excessive americanisation, organised tours and english speaking
3. Beautiful forests and reserves
4. Was good to spend a week at the Monkey Park and work with locals and animals in a place that didn't feature on any tourist trail at all...
Overall score from Phil - 6 out of 10
From Karen - 7 but too much hype!
1. Not as safe as its made out to be - we heard so many stories of stolen stuff
2. Way too many tourists and hence excessive americanisation, organised tours and english speaking
3. Beautiful forests and reserves
4. Was good to spend a week at the Monkey Park and work with locals and animals in a place that didn't feature on any tourist trail at all...
Overall score from Phil - 6 out of 10
From Karen - 7 but too much hype!
12, 13 July - Playa de Coco - break in and diving
After a full day of 4 bus trips we arrived at Coco beach, all keen to go diving/snorkelling the next day. We had met a nice american couple on the bus who were also keen, and we even managed to meet up with Kutaya and Rachel (the english girls we met in La Fortuna, who picked up their replacement passports from San Jose). All didn't turn out quite as expected though.... We headed out for a fantastic fresh fish dinner (probably the best we've had so far) but went back to the hotel to find the girls room had been broken into...kind of ironic since they'd actually decided to pay a little more for a more secure looking hotel room (with bars on window, safe and double bolted door) after they met a couple on the bus who were collecting replacement passports after having their room in playa de coco broken into. Anyway their door was kicked in, and all their stuff strewn over the room. Luckily they had put their passports in the safe - being a little paranoid after having their stuff stolen, and had hardly anything further taken since they had little left of value. Still quite a shock, visit by the police, and a drunken hotel owner producing a gun and promising to shoot the bastard didn't exactly help everyones nerves. Needless to say we decided there was safety in numbers and invited them to share our undisturbed room.
Diving/snorkelling the next day was a hell of a lot better, but we were all understandibly paranoid and took all our valuables on the boat! Both diving spots were just off an island a couple of hundred metres in front of the main beach. First spot was called Tortuga and was home to several sleepy white tipped reef sharks who apparently just wanted to sleep undisturbed in these rock caves. Lots of fish too. Next was called Punta Argentina, and I saw some spotted rays (very beautiful and graceful), large schools of fish, a few eels and an octopus. Unfortuneately Kutaya had problems with her ears and needed to abort the second dive, and sat looking miserable and in pain. Those guys have had sooo much bad luck.
Phil waited patiently for 2 hours in the bank for money, as their atm didnt take foreign cards... how frustrating. So playa coco, while not completely lacking charm and having good diving, did live up to the warning of being less than safe...and we were quite happy to be leaving costa rica and heading on to nicaragua...
Diving/snorkelling the next day was a hell of a lot better, but we were all understandibly paranoid and took all our valuables on the boat! Both diving spots were just off an island a couple of hundred metres in front of the main beach. First spot was called Tortuga and was home to several sleepy white tipped reef sharks who apparently just wanted to sleep undisturbed in these rock caves. Lots of fish too. Next was called Punta Argentina, and I saw some spotted rays (very beautiful and graceful), large schools of fish, a few eels and an octopus. Unfortuneately Kutaya had problems with her ears and needed to abort the second dive, and sat looking miserable and in pain. Those guys have had sooo much bad luck.
Phil waited patiently for 2 hours in the bank for money, as their atm didnt take foreign cards... how frustrating. So playa coco, while not completely lacking charm and having good diving, did live up to the warning of being less than safe...and we were quite happy to be leaving costa rica and heading on to nicaragua...
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
10-11 July - La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal
Last night we went Volcano and wildlife hunting.... we missed on both counts. The highlight of the animal life was a Cane Toad (we rolled our eyes).
As for the volcano...... Clouds, clouds, wait, was that a mountain top...... no, more clouds. It was a cloudy day, filled with clouds, and the occasional cloud that rained on us. We´ve been told there´s a volcano spitting lava and molten rocks.... but the girls from England thought Lake Arenal looked more like Scotland.... murky and dark. Nice lake (loch) though.
Interesting history, it exploded in 1968 killing about 88 people and has since doubled in both height and diameter (at the base) now reaching about 1700m high and about 7000m wide. Phil doesn´t agree, it´s a tourism conspiracy, aided by numerous postcards which we´re sure are photos of Mount Etna or St Helens elsewhere in the world.
Ref: http://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com/EN/
We then went to Baldi Hot Springs which were strangely enough, quite impressive. Pools ranged from 39°C to 67°C, scaldingly hot!!! With 3 or 4 swim-up bars and inter-connecting hot and cold pools the place was quite nice.
On the Tuesday (11th), it was off to Catarata (Falls) with Rachel and Kataya, two English girls who SCUBA DIVE!!! So we´re hoping to meet up with them tomorrow evening in Playa del Coco for a couple of Costa Rican dives.
As for the volcano...... Clouds, clouds, wait, was that a mountain top...... no, more clouds. It was a cloudy day, filled with clouds, and the occasional cloud that rained on us. We´ve been told there´s a volcano spitting lava and molten rocks.... but the girls from England thought Lake Arenal looked more like Scotland.... murky and dark. Nice lake (loch) though.
Interesting history, it exploded in 1968 killing about 88 people and has since doubled in both height and diameter (at the base) now reaching about 1700m high and about 7000m wide. Phil doesn´t agree, it´s a tourism conspiracy, aided by numerous postcards which we´re sure are photos of Mount Etna or St Helens elsewhere in the world.Ref: http://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com/EN/
We then went to Baldi Hot Springs which were strangely enough, quite impressive. Pools ranged from 39°C to 67°C, scaldingly hot!!! With 3 or 4 swim-up bars and inter-connecting hot and cold pools the place was quite nice.
On the Tuesday (11th), it was off to Catarata (Falls) with Rachel and Kataya, two English girls who SCUBA DIVE!!! So we´re hoping to meet up with them tomorrow evening in Playa del Coco for a couple of Costa Rican dives.
8-9 July - Monteverde
After finishing our time at the Monkey Park, we moved back to Liberia so we could get new glasses for Karen, since our bag was stolen. We´ve since bumped into a handful of other people who´ve also been through the same and found out that of all the American Passports in the world (not that there´s many) - the most are stolen in Costa Rica.
Monteverde - tourist trap to the multitudes, but somehow still pleasant. It has a mountain lodge feel with extreme heat instead of snow. We took a guided tour through Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve - fun and informative searching for the elusive Quetzal (the national bird). We also saw a very good exhibit called ¨The Bat Jungle¨ so now we know a little bit more about what we missed out on in Panama.
Then on to a Serpentarium - who´d like to kiss this ugly mother? Next day we took a zip-line canopy tour (www.skytrek.com) - think of Giant Flying Foxes like when you were a kid, except up to 80 km/h and up to 800m long through the jungle. Met up with Nina and Mike (Chicagoans who enjoy watching AFL on cable TV and think it´s all a bunch of pretty-boys who are very popular in the gay community in Chicago). We also watched the shitty World Cup final - damn Italians didn´t even deserve to be there let alone win that way!!! Ah, well.
Monday, July 03, 2006
7 July - Monkey Park
Sofia the Racoon and the ground team at Monkey Park. Nasira, Roberto, Carlos, Elmer, Gustavo (and son!).
Phil with Nasira, Carlos and Laura (the hard-working vet).
We thought that it was about time we practiced our spanish again... so for those of you who can't read its about the monkey park, the animals and what we're up to... SPANISH ONLY from now on for this entry....
Bienvenidos a la parque de monos...
Estamos en Portegolpe, Guanacaste, en un pueble pequeno en el norte-este de Costa Rica. Comos voluntarios por una semana en el parque que cuida los animales, y les vuelve a las bosques si es possible. Pero mucho de los animales eran mascotas y entonces no pueden regressar a la bosque.
El parque tiene Pizotes (en ingles se llama coatis), Mawcaws, muchos variedades de monos, coyotes, toucans y una goat que se llama Josephina. Nosotros trabajo es limpiando los jaulas y preparando la comida por los animales. Los monos y muchos otros animales comen 2 veces por dia, pero los crocodillos solamente comen 3 veces por semana (y entonces hemos visto ayer). Los coyotes comen muy rapido y comen el pollo y los hueso tambien. Muchos de los monos pueden tocar el alimiento de nuestros manos, pero hay dos que son un poco peligroso y loco (capuchin monkeys). Mucho de los parrajos pueden hablar un poco - ellos dicen "hola" "muy bonita" y "que rico" a los turistas. Cada dia veiamos 20 turistas mas o menos, y la mayoria de ellos son de los Estados unidos.
Estamos viviendo en el parque (pero no en una jaula!) Montamos bicicletas por 1 km para comer en una Soda local. En costa rica restaurantes pequenos se llaman "sodas". La comida es muy buena. Hay mucho comida, y todo con arroz y frijoles! No, no es la verdad... Flori puede preparar qualquier nos gustan... Hemos comido Pasta anoche!
Hasta luego amigos!!
29 June - Karens bag stolen, and monkey park
Well we caught the bus to the Nicoya Peninsula to get to the monkey park, and animal refuge and wildlife park where we are to be volunteers for a week... but more about that later...
The bus trip was hot and long, and after about 3 hours in (of a 5-6 hour ride) I thought it was a good idea to stretch out as much as I could and put my daypack up on the overhead luggage rack. Then about an hour later we realised it had gone. We think we know what happened looking back on it - there was this one guy who was standing in the isle, and he dropped a key and something else and waited for one of us foreigners to bend down and pick it up for him, making quite a fuss - think it was a classic distract move while someone else probably took the bag. Anyway all is not lost and its more an inconvenience than anything else- camera, glasses and raincoat are the main things gone, but I was luck to have my wallet on me, and we'd be in much worse shape if they had got phils bag. Bus driver wasn't helpful, and we're staying in a fairly remote area - no police to report it to yet- we will go next week to make the report for insurance purposes.
Monkey park. There will be another entry in spanish shortly, but I'll try to give a quick outline for everyone else... We've voluteered to do a weeks work through ASVO which coordinates volunteers to work in Costa Rican National parks and wildlife refuges. We were given a choice of a few parks and we chose the monkey park on the Nicoya peninsula, where there is an animal refuge. So we are cutting up fruit and veg, and cleaning cages and looking at the animals....
We'll try to add photos shortly but we're a bit remote, and I've actually made a day trip to Playa Tamarindo to the beach and to visit some civilisation, while Phils feeling a bit crook with a sore throat and head cold so he's stayed put. And I wasn't that keen on bringing any electronic gadgets with me in case someone else takes a liking to my bag while I swim at the beach... yes i'm a bit paranoid now!
The bus trip was hot and long, and after about 3 hours in (of a 5-6 hour ride) I thought it was a good idea to stretch out as much as I could and put my daypack up on the overhead luggage rack. Then about an hour later we realised it had gone. We think we know what happened looking back on it - there was this one guy who was standing in the isle, and he dropped a key and something else and waited for one of us foreigners to bend down and pick it up for him, making quite a fuss - think it was a classic distract move while someone else probably took the bag. Anyway all is not lost and its more an inconvenience than anything else- camera, glasses and raincoat are the main things gone, but I was luck to have my wallet on me, and we'd be in much worse shape if they had got phils bag. Bus driver wasn't helpful, and we're staying in a fairly remote area - no police to report it to yet- we will go next week to make the report for insurance purposes.
Monkey park. There will be another entry in spanish shortly, but I'll try to give a quick outline for everyone else... We've voluteered to do a weeks work through ASVO which coordinates volunteers to work in Costa Rican National parks and wildlife refuges. We were given a choice of a few parks and we chose the monkey park on the Nicoya peninsula, where there is an animal refuge. So we are cutting up fruit and veg, and cleaning cages and looking at the animals....
We'll try to add photos shortly but we're a bit remote, and I've actually made a day trip to Playa Tamarindo to the beach and to visit some civilisation, while Phils feeling a bit crook with a sore throat and head cold so he's stayed put. And I wasn't that keen on bringing any electronic gadgets with me in case someone else takes a liking to my bag while I swim at the beach... yes i'm a bit paranoid now!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
