We finally made it! It took 3 bus rides and a taxi ride totaling 17 hours!! The next day (yesterday) we went to Miraflores Locks which are one of the 3 sets of locks which boats must pass through in order to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific or vice versa. It was quite amazing and we got the opportunity to see two large ships with mostly car cargo pass through the locks.
Panama is VERY hot and humid this week; even the Panamanians are saying that its way hotter than normal- and maybe even hotter than ever?? Needless to say, after the locks we were exhausted and sick with heat so we spent the afternoon in our air conditioned hotel.
Today we visited both Casco Viejo and Panama Viejo in the morning. These consist of a series of ruins and monuments to great historical figures including the french canal workers. In C.V. there is a church which houses a golden altar (pics coming just as soon as we return) which was bellisima.
This afternoon we are going to a tipical panamanian resturant and then to a special VIP cinepolis movie theatre to escape the heat and see what the mid-upper class panamanians do for fun :) We are looking forward to seeing you all soon!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Puerto Viejo
¡Hola!
Our time in Arenal was pretty packed: we saw the volcano, took a walk through the rain forest and dipped in the hot springs. First, in the jungle we saw a few toucans, a bunch of turkeys and tons of other birds. We also saw some interesting plants and our guide, Pedro, pointed out to us which snakes are poisonous - always helpful! Next we went to see the volcano as the sun was setting and we saw a few different lava flows, really just red rocks going down the mountain. Arenal is very active and grows in height by 3 meters every year! Finally, we made a trip to the Baldi hot springs near town where we spent 2+ hours in the various pools. Each pool had a different temperature, ranging from 93 to 152 degrees. We saw the 152 degree pool, but we didn´t get too close!
The next day we went off to San Jose to stay the night and visit with Katie´s host mom from her study abroad here. We met for some batidos (smoothies or shakes) in San Jose for a couple hours, but we didn´t have enough time to see Tibosi. We took an afternoon bus to Puerto Viejo that day - the buses in Costa Rica are not chicken buses, they are more like Greyhounds in the US. They almost fit my legs and are more comfortable with fewer stops.
We biked down the beach this morning to Manzanillo with intent to relax on the beach and maybe snorkel, but the weather didn´t agree with that. It poured almost the entire time we biked there and back and while we swam in the Caribbean for a little while. The water was warmer than the rain, thankfully. Hopefully tomorrow we will have better luck!
Right now we plan to head to Panama City on Monday morning via buses. We understand that it is the most developed city we will have visited yet.
¡Ciao!
Our time in Arenal was pretty packed: we saw the volcano, took a walk through the rain forest and dipped in the hot springs. First, in the jungle we saw a few toucans, a bunch of turkeys and tons of other birds. We also saw some interesting plants and our guide, Pedro, pointed out to us which snakes are poisonous - always helpful! Next we went to see the volcano as the sun was setting and we saw a few different lava flows, really just red rocks going down the mountain. Arenal is very active and grows in height by 3 meters every year! Finally, we made a trip to the Baldi hot springs near town where we spent 2+ hours in the various pools. Each pool had a different temperature, ranging from 93 to 152 degrees. We saw the 152 degree pool, but we didn´t get too close!
The next day we went off to San Jose to stay the night and visit with Katie´s host mom from her study abroad here. We met for some batidos (smoothies or shakes) in San Jose for a couple hours, but we didn´t have enough time to see Tibosi. We took an afternoon bus to Puerto Viejo that day - the buses in Costa Rica are not chicken buses, they are more like Greyhounds in the US. They almost fit my legs and are more comfortable with fewer stops.
We biked down the beach this morning to Manzanillo with intent to relax on the beach and maybe snorkel, but the weather didn´t agree with that. It poured almost the entire time we biked there and back and while we swam in the Caribbean for a little while. The water was warmer than the rain, thankfully. Hopefully tomorrow we will have better luck!
Right now we plan to head to Panama City on Monday morning via buses. We understand that it is the most developed city we will have visited yet.
¡Ciao!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Monteverde & Arenal
We finally have a few minutes while waiting for our room in La Fortuna to be ready, so time to catch up...
We were able to get a lancha (speed boat) from Isla de Ometepe to catch a ferry back to the mainland, then a bus to the border to Costa Rica. The border crossing took the longest so far, I think the Nica-Tica border is generally a long wait. After getting our passports stamped, we found a large tour bus that would take us to a gas station to wait for a bus to Monteverde. We had to wait for about 90 minutes, but it was better than going all the way into San Jose and then back out to Monteverde.
Upon arrival in Santa Elena (town near Monteverde) we were somewhat bombarded by two local hotel representatives for about 10 minutes, so we decided to go eat to get away and choose where we wanted to stay. The result was a nice hotel away from town where Katie had stayed 5 years before, but she didn´t know that until we got there. The owner was very nice - especially to Katie.
The next day we went out to Santa Elena natural reserve for a guided walk through the cloud forest. It was really interesting and the guide we had knew pretty much everything about the forest - he teaches ecology at the local high school. We had to cut the tour short though because we had to get to the canopy tour which was a blast. There were 6 of us in our group and we all had fun zipping through the trees on cables and harnesses. There were two areas that were different: the tarzan swing and the superman. For the tarzan swing, we jumped off a platform connected to a rope and swung back and forth until we were ¨caught¨ by the guides. The initial jump was the thrilling part. For the superman we were connected to the cable on our back and hung high above the trees on a long cable - Katie had to close her eyes!
Today we are heading out to see Volcan Arenal and visit the hot springs here in La Fortuna. No pictures, maybe for the rest of the trip - the computer here saw my picture folders as viruses or something. I don´t want to risk losing them all! I´ll see how it goes though...
Next time will probably be from Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean :)
We were able to get a lancha (speed boat) from Isla de Ometepe to catch a ferry back to the mainland, then a bus to the border to Costa Rica. The border crossing took the longest so far, I think the Nica-Tica border is generally a long wait. After getting our passports stamped, we found a large tour bus that would take us to a gas station to wait for a bus to Monteverde. We had to wait for about 90 minutes, but it was better than going all the way into San Jose and then back out to Monteverde.
Upon arrival in Santa Elena (town near Monteverde) we were somewhat bombarded by two local hotel representatives for about 10 minutes, so we decided to go eat to get away and choose where we wanted to stay. The result was a nice hotel away from town where Katie had stayed 5 years before, but she didn´t know that until we got there. The owner was very nice - especially to Katie.
The next day we went out to Santa Elena natural reserve for a guided walk through the cloud forest. It was really interesting and the guide we had knew pretty much everything about the forest - he teaches ecology at the local high school. We had to cut the tour short though because we had to get to the canopy tour which was a blast. There were 6 of us in our group and we all had fun zipping through the trees on cables and harnesses. There were two areas that were different: the tarzan swing and the superman. For the tarzan swing, we jumped off a platform connected to a rope and swung back and forth until we were ¨caught¨ by the guides. The initial jump was the thrilling part. For the superman we were connected to the cable on our back and hung high above the trees on a long cable - Katie had to close her eyes!
Today we are heading out to see Volcan Arenal and visit the hot springs here in La Fortuna. No pictures, maybe for the rest of the trip - the computer here saw my picture folders as viruses or something. I don´t want to risk losing them all! I´ll see how it goes though...
Next time will probably be from Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean :)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
La Isla
After finishing up some med school application stuff in Masaya, we got a taxi to the carretera (highway) where we could catch a bus to Rivas which is near San Jorge, a launching point to Isla de Ometepe. The bus "usher" was sure to get us to a place where we could get to San Jorge which ended up being because he could get his friend to taxi us there from Rivas and he could get a cut. Fine except when the taxi driver tried to charge us more than we agreed before we got in. Then again, that pretty much always happens.
From there it was about an hour ferry ride to the island then about a two hour bus ride and finally about an hour shuttle ride to Merida near the southern volcano. It just so happened that there was a spanish teacher on our bus with students where we were staying in Merida - he offered us a ride to the hotel gratis! All in all, it took us about 8 hours to get from Masaya to Merida...
This morning we took a hike up a local waterfall on the volcano with a guide from the hotel. We ran into some tourists from Spain in a SUV going up - the driver offered us a ride up the rest of the way to a 1km hike to the falls. I wouldn't normally take something like that but it sure was humid and my shirt was drenched from only walking to where we started going up, so we took it. The falls are beautiful with lots of birds, secedas and howler monkeys along the way.
Anyway, I think we're heading out tomorrow to get to Costa Rica - we want to get to a beach there eventually to relax for a couple of days after this somewhat non-stop traveling.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Masaya
We decided to make a stop in Masaya on the way to Isla de Ometepe mainly because of the crafts market here, much like the one in Antigua. Before leaving this morning, we visited a waterfall near Esteli that was really cold and full of small fish, but beautiful. We pretty much spent the rest of the day on the bus on a hot and humid day. I have a feeling the lowlands will always be like this...
The first picture is Katie standing in front of the falls near Esteli and the second is of a 2nd class (chicken) bus at the bus station where we got on a bus to leave Esteli. Sadly, I don´t think I got a good picture of one of the buses in Guatemala - they are a lot more dressed up in lights and ¨bling¨
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