last days in Costa Rica

After my brief career as a rodeo clown I left my new buddies for Monteverde. This is a very lush area up in the mountains that has a refreshing crispness in the air due to the altitude (4000+ feet above sea level) and great weather for sleeping under a blanket, which is a special treat down here. Monteverde is the site of the original canopy/zip line tour. The terrain is divided between very green pastures and cloud forest, which for all intents and purposes is just another name for a rain forest. The zip lines go from 30 feet to over 1/4 mile

through the trees and over valleys. There was also a 100 foot rappel down through the canopy of the strange, huge trees and a thing they called a tarzan swing. The tarzan swing was basically a pendulum where they pushed you off a platform and let you swing through the forest until you slowed down a bit. But don't worry, it was all very safe as this pic of the government tested rubber tire tube that was clearly meant for this exact purpose.

Hilarious. Actually, they were quite safe and professional. The last zip line was the longest one and they gave you the option of being harnessed in the rear so you could look down on the valley as you sped across it.

This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, so far. I have seen a lot of cool things, had some great experiences and met some killer people but there was something really unique about flying through the air above and between thick jungles. At one point I went on a shorter zip line and went past a howler monkey that growled a bit, just to make his prescence felt. He was only 20 feet away and really shocked me. Supposedly howler monkeys are quite goofy and silly but I was definitely in his territory and not in my own element. The guides chuckled at the look on my face and asked if the monkey scared me. They did not believe my answer that it only suprised me, most likely because I didn't believe me. The tarzan swing was a favorite of the entire group and it was very fun to hear some very primal emotions. Once the guides hooked you in they pretty much did not give you a warning and pushed you off the platform. There was a split second fall before you started swinging through the forest. It was at this point that most people screamed in terror and soon after started laughing uncontrollably. The more primal the emotion, the more we all sound alike. I was the first person to go off the swing and had a good view of all the people drop as the rest of the group follwed me. I truely enjoyed the swing in emotions of my fellow zip liners as much as the rope swing, itself. Later on in the afternoon, one of the guys from the group and I went to the Santa Elena Reserve and hiked for about 4 miles through the rain forest. The pics don't do it justice because this place was so thick with vegetation.

I can not imagine getting lost in a forest like this. I think I would just lie down and give up. It was so disorienting and impassable that it would take you three days to go 1 mile and you would most likely go in circles. There are tons of birds with some really strange sounding calls that make you feel like you are just about to get bombarded by some strange predator. I truely felt like I was on another planet.

The next morning I was off, in a mini van, going over some ridiculously beautiful terrain. This part of Costa Rica got it the nickname of 'Switzerland of Central America', which is a terrible nickname. I understand the idea, the terrain is very lush, green, dramatic ridges and beautiful pastures with good lookin' cows (seriously, first cows in C.A. where I couldn't see their ribs) but the land is so different. Anyway, after an hour and a half I hopped on a boat across man made Lake Arenal which had the famous volcano of the same name at the far end.

Another mini van into La Fortuna, on the east side of the volcano. Volcan Arenal is one of three majorly active vocanoes in the Americas. The others are Pacaya, which I hiked to in January, and the volcano in Hawaii. Or at least that's what the guide told us. The volcano is almost always shrouded in a cloud which makes seeing the eruptions more rare than common. It does peek its head out at times, but you have to be patient. I went on a hike through the rain forest near the base , up to the side of the volcano, into an observatory but the clouds never lifted. It was really cool to hear the eruptions though. Apparently this volcano does not have a steady flow, but a more random belching of lava rocks that come barrelling down the side of the mountain. You hear an explosion, then loud crashes that get softer as the big rocks break up bouncing down the mountain. The hike was great as the guide told stories about how he climbed the volcano many times although it is illegal to do so. He didn't seem to be too worried a bout his safety which made me question his ability as a guide but we all got back safely, for whatever that's worth. After La Fortuna I hitched a ride down to San jose with these 2 guys from the States and England, respectively. The drive was incredibly beautiful through these high altitude farm towns. The temperature dropped into the 60's from the high 90's in a matter of 30 minutes. The little towns were great, including this one with a crazy town square that was ruled by pot smoking teens, both literally and figuratively. These shrubs and hedges are proof of the latter. Back into San Jose for one last night in Costa Rica and off to Panama in the morning.

mess with the bull, you get the horns

The next day I met up with the gang and moved into the house. My room was an open air second floor room under an awesome palm frond roof that was over the open air kitchen and living area.

I suppose if you have beautiful weather all year round the thing to do is have an open air living room, which I quickly became a big fan of! That night all of us piled into the rented passenger van and made our way to the rodeo!

First we made our way to some friends of our hosts who were renting this incredible house up in the mountains that overlooked the entire beach. It had an infinity pool nad tons of monkeys around including this one just a few yards from the deck.

Whoops, that's more proof I was here, the monkey is here.

This is a howler monkey. His arm is on the left with his head peeking through. His tail is on the right and if you look closely, just below that you can see some extremely uncomfortable looking reproductive organs just hanging out for everyone to see. No wonder they howl like a beast in pain, it is a tough life swinging from the trees with a set like that! After a quick grimace of pain at my fellow male two legged cuz, we were off to the rodeo. I have to say I was very excited because the rodeo here is a big event. It runs on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday just a few times a year and everyone in this small town including all of the surrounding areas come out, dressed to the nines! We ate some of the local food (mystery meat grilled on skewers, cotton candy and caramel filled churros) and made our way in to the main event. The ring is circular and everyone rushes to get a seat on the fenceposts that surround the ring.

This is basically in the ring! Your legs hang into the ring and when the bulls come by you have to lift your legs out of its reach! Fantastic! The best part is that the drunks jump into the ring and hang out until the bull gets close and they all run for cover or slide under the fence to safety.

The bravado inspired me and I jumped into the ring! I am not kidding. We were sitting on the part of the circle directly across from the gate where the bulls are released.

After the riders are ejected or jump off they let the bulls run around the ring as the locals watch and laugh at the stupid people, like me, in the ring. At first I stayed near the edge of the ring and when a bull looked in my direction from 30 yards away I would jump up the fence. After a few bulls I felt more at ease and stayed longer and longer. At one point I actually wandered out to the center of the ring as the bull was released with the rider on it. Flip flops are not the preferred footwear for such events but I never got too close to the bulls so it didn't really matter. One of the highlights was when a member of our group went behind a bull and pulled its tail and slid under the fence as the entire crowd laughed. No one went to the hospital and afterwards we went to the rodeo disco which was the icing on the cake! I am waiting on some photos from some of my new friends with me in the center of the ringbut will post them as soon as I get them. I'm not sure how you say 'giddyup' in Spanish but i'm doing some research!

dumb luck with a crazy lizard

After Ometepe I made my way to San Juan del Sur, which is on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. It used to be a little fishing village and is now the most popular surf destination in Nicaragua along with many weekend homes of Nicas with lots of money.

It is a charming enough town with a laid back vibe and nothing especially unique about it. That is not to say it is a boring town, just nothing great happened to me here. The best part of the town was a $5 dinner of some of the best grilled chicken I have ever eaten. The nice family sold it out of their house every night, right across from my hotel. They said they marinated it in orange juice, mango, tamarind and a bunch more fruits and spices that I forget. It came with the best gallo pinto (spiced up black beans and rice) I have had on this trip, along with a great cabbage salad that was served with super thin fried plantains. Everything was fantastic and it made me realize some people can just cook! The next day I was leaving for Costa Rica, so I said goodbye to the chicken and was off first thing in the morning. Border crossings can be very difficult depending on the time of day, amount of traffic, mood of the customs officials and a bunch of other things. So when I got to the bus station at 6:30am and a fella asked me if I wanted a taxi to the border for $20 I jumped at it. It took about 30 minutes in the taxi instead of 90+ minutes on the bus... well worth it in my book. As I got out of the cab a hustler kinda fella led me through the customs lines (which were very small at the time) and got me to the Costa Rican side in no time, all for a $5 "tip". There was no line on the Costa Rican side and the customs guy had me processed in about 30 seconds. As soon as I exited the customs booth a bus was leaving for Liberia where I needed to connect with the next bus. The last time I crossed this border it took about 3 hours and I had just done it in 15 minutes.... amazing. In Liberia there was a bus to Nicoya leaving right when I got there. I got into Nicoya around 10:45am. I was hoping to get to Liberia (2 hours before Nicoya) by noon and was way ahead of schedule. I only had to go about 2 more hours to get to the beach to meet my friend Devlin who was coming in to Costa Rica for a week from Colorado. Perhaps I got a bit cocky at this point and the travels gods got a little angry at me. The next bus for the beach was at noon, so I sat around in the bus station for over 2 hours waiting for the bus that ended up being over an hour late. The beach where I wanted to go (Playa Guiones)is 5 miles away from the town of Nosara, which is inland by those 5 miles. The bus passed the beach and went on to Nosara where I got off at the last stop. Only problem was that I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I asked some questions to the locals I ran into and got no definitve answers, most likely because I had no idea where I was supposed to be going. You see Devlin and I had both never been here and there is no real good meeting place in town, so I was kinda without a plan which is not a really good plan. Right before sunset I found a nice guy who called a taxi for me and got me to my hotel. I had only read a few reviews online about the hotel and had forgotten the name, but after some back and forth the driver figured out I wanted to go to the "Gilded Iguana" not some 'crazy lizard place'. I checked in at 6pm, which was very disappointing after such a fast start to my day. I had walked about 6 miles around town (mostly in circles) with my 30lb backpack in 95 degree heat and was in desperate need of a shower. After my shower I found a place at the bar and ordered a beer, feeling very clean and refreshed. I had not really planned on getting all the way to Playa Guiones in one day, with the border crossing and all, but here I was.


I was supposed to meet up with Devlin the next day so I just settled into the bar for dinner and a few beers when some crazy, laughing girl attacked me from behind. Of course, it was Devlin, who had just gotten into town and her gang decided to have dinner at the exact hotel I was staying at. Dumb luck, but we just laughed and went with it. All her friends (whom I had never met) were all very nice and super cool. Two of them (Ryan and Cat) owned a share in a vacation home down here and they, very graciously, offered to put me up for a few days. The digs were fantastic and were definitely the nicest of any place I have stayed yet, on this trip. It was looking like a little vacation from my vaction was on the horizon. For a few days, at least.

o muh whaat?

Right smack in the middle of Nicaragua is a lake.... big lake. Some time ago two volcanoes popped up and created an island in the middle with a tiny isthmus between the two. The big volcano is Concepcion and the smaller is Maderas. The island is called Ometepe and that was my next destination.

Don't worry this is not the island itself, merely an artists rendering. I hopped on a little boat that resembled a tugboat and went accross the lake to the island. The water got pretty rough and I once again felt a false sense of manliness by not vomiting. In fact I have not gotten sea sick on any boats this trip. Of course the water has never been more than a few feet and choppy but I now consider myself a seafaring fella. Ahoy, Whitey! Isla Ometepe is quite a unique place. Lots of wildlife, tons of birds and two kinds of monkeys. A taxi driver told me that years ago they passed a law saying that you could not shoot any animals on the island... except of course for chickens and dogs, he said. Awesome! I suppose they got a good view of keeping the animals safe and keeping tourists comingback. The first day I rented a motorcycle with Swiss Chris whom I have been traveling with. We rode all aound the island. The road circling the big volcano was paved but the road circling the other smaller volcano was dirt track and very bumpy. I have not ridden a motorcycle for over 25 years so I was slightly nervous. I figured it out pretty quickly and was off. As we crossed the island we saw tons of birds, a few howler monkeys and tons of smiling faces. As we got to the other side of the island we stopped for some water. When I got back on the bike I sorta spun out and fell down. A few locals ran outside to see what the hubub was about and started laughing at me. I was more than happy to provide a little entertainment. As I got back on the bike I realized that I did what I do with every rental peice of equipment that i'm on which is break it. The gear shift by my left foot was bent and as I tried to bend it back into place it snapped off. Luckily I was in second gear so for the rest of the trip I went a whopping 35km per hour. Seriously, it could not have happened at a furter point away from the start. To turn back would be the same exact distance as it would be to go on. I could not help but laugh at my clumsiness. We stopped at a hippie ecolodge that Swiss Chris wanted to stop at ate some delicious fresh bread which is very rare around here. Bread does not seem to be a thing the Central Americans concern themselves with. The bread that you can find is usually a glorified Wonder bread so this was indeed a rare treat. Then we went to a natural pool fed by volcanic waters called Ojos del Agua. Pretty spot but were terrorized by the local parrot gang who would not stop squawking and buzzing the tower of my noggin. I brought the hobbled bike back to the shop and had to pay an extra $30 for the part that I broke. What are you gonna do?! The tourism industry on Ometepe has taken a hit lately because Volcan Concepcion erupted less than a month ago. The hotel we were at still had a lot of ash on the leaves of the plants and the peak lost 100 meters of height in the blast. That is about 300 feet in a single minor eruption. When I heard this there was only one thing to do... run! The next morning a few of us got a guide and headed up the volcano. Elmer (our guide) would only take us up to 1200 meters of the 1600 meter volcano due to the recent activity. In addition to being bummed we could not go to the top I was disapointed when he would not let me take my machete. Apparently my pre-school arguement of 'but you have one' was not persuasive enough.


My disapointment was soon overshadowed by my inability to keep enough oxygen in my lungs and my profuse sweating. It has been a month or two since I had hiked and I was feeling it! As we got to the arbitrary 'do not cross this line' of 1200 meters I was overjoyed that we could stop going up and start to descend. The hike was really nice but rather steep near the end.


The wind was whipping but the sun was out and the views were great so I was very happy to have done it. We went down a different path and went through some pretty thick jungle trails. Now is the end of the dry season and the previous rainy season was one of the driest on record so the jungle was not as thick as usual but it didn't stop me from thinking I was grabbing a snake everytime I went to grab a branch. I believe the word is paranoia. At this point I wished I had a smaller machete that I could have concealed from Elmer until after the hike was well along the way. Hmmmm, note to self. Looks like I might once again be heading to little place called machete-town!

a good ol' virgin sacrifice

Back on the mainland and immediately into a more realistic Central American culture (as opposed to the Corn Islands), my newly aquired travel partner (Swiss) Chris and I got out of the airport and into a taxi to our next destination of Masaya. Masaya is a working class town only 15 miles south of Managua but immensely different. The people were happy, smiling and quick to say a buenos dias to a tall gringo such as myself. The central park was more like a town square in the center of the city that served as social gathering, church, school and commerce center. Masaya is know for its' handicraft market which was totally geared towards tourists and slightly soulless. The sellers were nice but everything was so.... clean. Just not what i've come to expect down here. Soon we found the local market and the smell of rotting fruit and vegetables in the gutter made me feel that all was right in the world once again. The following morning we made our way to Laguna de Apoyo. Geographically speaking this was a super cool place. Imagine a mountain that had been chopped off and carved into a big bath tub in the center. The water was slightly salty and supposedly very deep at the center. There were a few hotel type places that had sea kayaks and sailboats but we just threw our stuff on the beach and had a swim and sat in the sun.

Aftera few hours we hiked the 1000 feet up to the rim and caught a bus back to Masaya. Later in the afternoon we went to Volcan Masaya for an afternoon/early evening tour. The park rangers drove us up to the top in the back of a rickety pickup. Luckily the accelerator was working like new and we got to the top in 7 minutes flat. The volcano had tons of steam and sulfurous gasses continually flowing out from the crater which made for a really cool dramatic effect.

Apparently the indigenous tribes sacrificed virgins by throwing them into the lava, hoping to appease the gods and sparing their towns from destruction in return. When the Christians came to the area a priest constructed a cross to exorcise the demons of virgin sacrificing and clean up the indeginous peoples acts. The original cross still stands today, but the virgin sacrificing continues. Of course i'm kidding.... the cross is clearly a replica.


After climbing up to the cross we went to the top of another volcano a mile away. Actually the two volcanoes were once the same one. Back in the day, this one huge volcano erupted and the debris that was left created two seperate cones.

The small hill see way in the middle of the picture here is where the original base of the super volcano once stood. Hard to imagine with this pic, sorry. Now one lies dormant and one is active. It was a super volcano that had a base of seemingly 10 miles in diameter. This sucker was huge. More than huge! Now these two smaller volcanoes were barely enormous. Next we went to a lava tunnel where there were tons of bats. apparently the Masaya bats are some of the laziest bats ever because in an old lava tunnel roughly 20 feet in diameter there were tons of mosquitos. Now, if I have not told you, mosquitos love me and there was no relief in the tunnel. I was constantly slapping and swatting while these lazy bats just sat on the ceiling. Don't bats eat insects like mosquitos? I just couldn't understand it and have yet to forgive the bats. The end of the tour was an overlook deep into the active volcano hoping to see some glowing lava. It only occurs once every two weeks or so an we were shut out. What are you gonna do? They kicked us out of the park at 8pm and literally, said 'good luck getting a bus back to Masaya'. The highway entrance to the volcano is on the highway to Managua and is purportedly adangerous place after dark. I'm pretty sure I told the guard at the gate, 'thanks', but i'm still not sure why I said it. I'm not convinced that the highway was quite as dangerous as it was made out to be. Either way we caught a cab after 10 minutes and got home without issue.

last days on little corn

Sorry it has been a while on the posts folks. Life on the Little Corn Island was tough. Not really, of course, but it's all relative, right. I ended up being on the Corn Islands for 18 nights!

My plan was to be there for 7 days-ish but I was having so much fun reading books, swinging in hammocks and swimming in the blue waters that I decided to stay a little longer. As the weekend approached, also came Samana Santa which is a national holiday in most Central American countries. Thursday and Friday before Easter is when Nicaragua celebrates it and the country literally shuts down. There is no bank or ATM on Little Corn so I had to take a panga (small boat) to Big Corn to hit up the ATM for more cash, as I was nearly out. Of course the one ATM was out of cash and the bank was closed for the holiday. I literally had only enough money for the ride back to Little Corn and that was it! Luckily, my hotel runs on a credit system, where you can pay for all you accomodation, food, beer (very important) at the time of check out, so I was not in danger of starving or going thirsty. Luckily the hotel also sold rum by the bottle so there was no need to panic. In addition, there were 3 Swiss folks whom I had been hanging out with a lot in the previous few weeks. Olaf offered to lend me some cash until the ATM was filled up, which was extremely nice. I tried to go as long as I could on the hotel food, but finally had to give in and borrow a few dollars from Christophe on Sunday. On Monday morning I made my way back to Big Corn and was relieved to see the ATM was filled up! Whew! It was a helpless feeling not having any access to money, but it was a perfect experience for down here. Things just don't run like you would expect them too (ie: A cash machine with cash in it) but that is what makes it so great!

The next problem was that everyone wanted to leave right after Semana Santa. By the time I tried to book a flight out, everything was booked up solid for 3 days but I was able to get out on Wednesday morning, so it only meant an extra few days on the island. Alas, back to my time on the island and not trying to get off it. The weather ended up being kinda crappy for my last few days, but I did manage to get out fishing with Jather and Felipe again. The day I got back from Big Corn cashless, I met up with Jather and we decided to go out on the boat that morning. The seas were a little rough due to some nasty wind, but it was nice and sunny so we went out. Another local named William went out with us as well.

William was rather dark skinned and he was called as such in the Carribean slang, and they called me Chele, much to my happiness (see previous posts). The first thing ol' Whitey here did was fall over in the boat. Man, it was like a beached whale, stuck on my back, embarrased, trying to get up, not able to and everybody laughing at me. Luckily I did not get any hooks stuck in myself and it served as a great ice breaker and we all left the bay laughing (at me). We headed south to the deepest water near the island, about 3-4 miles off shore, and tried to put our lines in the water, looking for big Pargo Rojo (Red Snapper) or Yellow Tail. The currents were strong so we moved in closer to shore, slowly circling the island. Everybody but me had caught a few fish, but the currents were still very strong making fishing difficult so we kept moving. As we got about 3/4 of the way around the island we went further out into the flats (only 50 feet deep or so) and continued to have sporadic luck. After our 6 hour fishing trip I only caught about 4 fish, but the fellas had caught quite a few so it wasn't a total loss. Jather's wife made me fish in coconut curry sauce with some Spanish Mackeral that was caught 3 hours before. It was delicious and he and his wife offered me a tab until I was able to withdrawal money from the ATM after the weekend. I was stunned at their generosity but they isisted that it would be their pleasure. My pride kept me from taking them up on the offer except for once, just to let them know how much i appreciated the thought. Every time my faith in humanity is about to diminish, a few simple acts bring it back up above the surface... for a moment at least. Amazingly kind people I have found here. Wednesday came quickly and I made my way back to Managua and quickly to Masaya which was a quick 15 miles south of the cesspool that is Managua. My time on Corn Island had come to an end, but as with most places on my travels where I have had the opportunity to hang with the locals for more than a few days I found some great characters and some extremely generous and cool people. If anyone ever has the opportuniy to come here, doesn't mind not having electricity from 5am until 3pm, doesn't mind not having any cars or roads (this is the main drag),

doesn't mind being hit upside the head with a tree trunk if you are caught stealing (see previous posts), but loves palm trees, hammocks, crystal clear waters, snorkleing with rays and sharks and fishing with some extremely nice people, then come down to Little Corn for some rest and relaxation. It is a truely unique place.