Bocas Flood 2K8

Today is the first day I've had access to the internet or a phone in 4 or so days. The archipelago that Bocas del Toro makes up has been hit by torrential rains, perhaps a tropical storm..? Who knows, since we have no access to the real world on this island. It started raining about a week ago, which was fine because November is the rainy season and usually it will rain for a couple of days and then be sunny for 3 days or so, then go back to rain. So we were waiting out the storm, ready for it to turn sunny again, when Friday morning I trudged through the pouring rain at 8 a.m. to open and hopefully find dry refuge in the Mondo Taitu Hostel when I found myself splashing through water all throughout the hostel. It had been a long night the night before, so I was a bit too tired and overwhelmed (and maybe still a little drunk) to do anything about it. I opened the rest of the hostel smoothly and then just sat at the desk and looked around in utter disbelief. Forty-five minutes later Daniel, one of the owners, came downstairs and by this point the water had risen. He took one look out the back door and started running around freaking out. Apparently this wasn't normal and hadn't happened the whole time he's been in Bocas, which is four years (I later found out from one of the cleaning women that this hadn't happened since 1991!). Usually when one looks out the back door of the hostel he or she can find the street, a house across the street, a dock that goes off of the backyard of said house into the sea. But not this day. Instead the ocean was literally at our doorstep. There was no road, kids were paddling canoes in the road. There was no cutoff to where the ocean ended and the flooding of land began. It was wild! By 11 p.m. when Molly woke up the water inside the hostel was ankle deep. And it wasn't just sea water, water had come up through the toilets, it had seeped up from under the concrete floor, there were pieces of food, wrappers, and other discarded items floating in the water.

  Shot out of the back door of the hostel 

It was time to take action. Daniel and the cleaning ladies grabbed brooms and pails and started pushing the water out of the hostel through the back door. All of the guests were up by this point, had checked out early, but had no way of getting anywhere so the flooded hostel became a great resource for people funnel their pent up frustration and giddiness through. Everyone started grabbing any type of scooping device they could find and were bent over shoveling the water out of the hostel. We had Israelis making pancakes in the kitchen who then started to bang on pots and pans and stools singing some Hebrew jingles to entertain us. People started dancing along while sweeping out the water. When we had gotten most of the water out some Spaniards started detailing out plans of how we were going to use surfboards and pieces of wood to keep the water back. It was definitely a united effort on all fronts.  

My feet in the gross water ahh!

Later the rumors start about what is actually going on: a tropical storm, a hurricane, just heavy rains that are flooding the island because we sunk 30 cm because of the earthquake that happened a couple weeks ago. For the past 3 days there have only been 5 people in this 56-person capacity hostel, it feels like a ghost town. Meanwhile over at our sister hostel, Heike, since there is nothing to do on this island when it's raining and there is no way for people to leave, it's ridiculously loud and crowded. The roads on the mainland that connect the port town to the rest of the country are washed away by landslides so there is no way to travel by land. The river at the border with Costa Rica flooded out the bridge that connects the two countries. The airport here was people's only hope, but it's been closed because of the weather for the past 3 days. We still don't know what is actually going on, but there's still water everywhere and today is the first day that it hasn't rained all day in over a week. We're slowly but surely pulling ourselves out of this rainy depression. It's Thanksgiving soon! I'm supposed to go off to Colombia the day after, but who knows if/when I'll really go! 

Feliz Cumpleaños Lauren

Last Monday was Lauren's birthday. Lauren loves birthdays. Not just her own birthday, but anyone's birthday. She loves to plan the parties, decorations, cakes, gifts-everything, so there was a lot to live up to and a lot to be done to give her a proper birthday party in Panama. Luckily I had some help from Molly and Jess (the other girls that work at the hostels with us) and some guests. Two guys who had been staying here for a while went to Panama City for the weekend and called to see if they could pick up anything in the big city that we couldn't get on the little island here. Well of course no Latin America fiesta is complete without the likes of a piñata, so I told Eric and Dusty to pick up one, preferably in the shape of a dog because as we have all come to know, Lauren hates dogs (cats, dogs, household pets, and most any other animal for that matter. But she loves children, so she does have a soul!) and the sheer joy she would get from beating the crap out of a dog piñata would probably be birthay present enough for her. Plus Lauren LOVES candy, even the crap candy-I think it was because she was deprived of it as a child- so that's like two birthday presents in one. So the boys went all out on a birthay shopping frenzy and bought a piñata, pin the tail on the donkey game, birthday hats, birthday masks (eye masks with clown like noses that in the end nobody put on because they were too scary), balloons, candles, and a pink Tinkerbell "Feliz Cumpleaños" banner that I had to confirm for Eric right before he put up did in fact mean Happy Birthday in Spanish.
While Dusty and Eric set up the decorations, I had to finish carrying out my "brilliant" idea of making alfajores, an Argentine dessert that consists of two cookies with dulce de leche (a caramel like substance) squished in the middle. I considered it brilliant when I first thought of it because Lauren and I both studied abroad in Buenos Aires and would often get nostalgic for all things Argentine while traveling. I found a recipe for making dulce de leche from scratch, which didn't seem too hard. All you needed was a gallon of milk, four cups of sugar, some baking soda and a little vanilla. Easy enough right? Well, not when you're using a Latin American stove that has no proper heat gauge and something that should take an hour to make ends up taking four. I started boiling the milk and mixing in the ingredients at around 10 a.m., but then I wanted to take Lauren to lunch and go with her to the beach for her birthday, so Molly graciously offered to take over. Molly did not know what she was getting herself into, though, (nor did I) and 4 hours later when we came back from the beach, the dulche de leche had just barely formed the right consistency and was ready to be taken off the stove. Molly had slaved away that entire time standing in front of the hot stove in 90 degree heat stirring the milk and sugar mixture until it hardened into a thick brownish goo (stirring constantly the whole time, as the recipe called for, or else it would burn). I got back and apologized profusely when I saw Molly sweating bullets and looking just a bit pissed off, but she must have been on too much of a sugar high from sampling all of the dulce de leche because she merely said "I haven't left this kitchen or this vat of sugary milk for four hours and I'm covered in sweat. I'm going to shower. Lauren better damn like dulce de leche." I truly was grateful to her.

But the dessert was still not done. I had to make the cookie part for the alfajores. I also had to do this in one hour and with 10 other guests who decided to all cook dinner together at the same time in the hostel's confined kitchen space. I cannot convey how much I sweat that day, well I sweat everyday honestly, but this day in particular, what with the stress of getting everything right for Lauren's birthay, the cooking, the crowdedness, etc., I had to mop up my brow with a rag every five minutes. Anyways, some minor alterations had to be made to the recipe (we didn't have baking powder, we only had half of the cornmeal it called for because I noticed halfway through pouring the cornmeal into the batter that maggots had eaten through the bag, oh well, plus 350 degrees F on an oven in Panama is not something easily guestimated even if I could read what the knob in Celcius). But after some minor pan burning and smoke coming out of the oven, the cookies turned out not only edible, but actually pretty tasty.

The celebration turned out great, and I think it exceeded Lauren's expectations. We had fish and salad for dinner, homemade white sangria to drink, alfajores and brownies for dessert, followed by a game of pin the tail on the donkey and some piñata bashing that Lauren managed to take down in well under 5 minutes. It was quite best one of the funniest nights we've had here in Bocas. Lauren said it was the best birthday ever, but I think it might have been the sangria talking.

Current location: Bocas del Toro, Panama. Me and Lauren got here to this archipelago that is off of Panama on the Carribean near the Costa Rica border 2 and a half weeks ago. Lauren knew one of the guys that owns a couple of hostels here from college and he offered us a job here for a couple months if we wanted to stop by while passing through. I don't think I'll ever be given a job description quite like the one I got here ever again: basically we were told that during the day we check people in and answer any questions at the hostel and then at night we're not necessarily forced to drink at the hostel's bar-for free-but we should spend at least a couple hours there every night and mingle with the guests. So basically, I sit in a hammock most of the day reading a book, do the daily word jumble in the Miami Herald, talk with the other people that work here about local island gossip, eat, and then at night I eat some more before I go to the bar and start off with one drink because, hey I am in a bar and it's free, which then may or may not turn into another drink, then another, then perhaps a tasty shot created by any of the girls that work here at the hostel and bar. To stay healthy and try to detox my system, I attempt to work out by going for a run when it's not so hot after the sun sets but still just as humid. Spending any more than two minutes out in the sun immediately puts my sweat glands into overdrive, so it's a challenge to muster the motivation to lace up my sneakers.

But it's been a great two and a half weeks so far. I thought I would get bored of it, especially since in DC and my job this past summer in Costa Rica I found I thrive on stress and multi-tasking, but I've come to accept the relaxation and tranquility as a sort of graduation present to myself. There are six of us working at the 2 hostels that are owned by 3 American guys that are only a couple of years older than me. Everyone is really cool and meeting the travelers and backpackers coming from all over the world with different experiences and travels is one of the best parts. I love asking people where they're coming from and where they're going, adding to the already overwhelmingly long list I have of places to visit.

I've managed to visit only some of the beaches so far. Technically I have to work about 4 hours a day at the hostel, but everyone is really flexible and there's no set schedule so if someone wants to take a couple hours to go to a beach, there's always someone willing to cover. The beaches here are beautiful, white sand and crystal clear, blue water. I've done some snorkeling as well, but I'd like to do more. There's an area where you can go when you do a boat tour that is supposed to have all of these tropical fish and you can also see dolphins.

A couple of days ago some guys staying here rented some mopeds to go to a beach and invited me along. The drive there took about 30 minutes and it was really nice. The road wound through the jungle and it was like seeing another part of the island which wasn't so touristy. Along the way we had some complications, which in retrospect were minor compared to the way back. It all went wrong when while observing the beautiful scenery, one of the guys drove off into a ditch. It took him a good five minutes to get himself out of there and we were on our way. But then Andy, the guy I was riding with, asked me if there would be anywhere to get gas along the way. Obviously being in a remote area of the island I told him no, highly doubtful. Apparently, the guy who he rented the bike from told him he should fill up the tank because with half a tank he wasn't going to make it back. Andy, thinking the guy was just trying to get some more money out of him, brushed him off and went on his way. By the time we got to the beach the gauge was reading empty. Right, well we decided we would handle it later. For now, let's enjoy the time on the beach. This proved to be a bit difficult when upon dismounting from our bikes, we were assaulted by sand flies. I don't know if you've experienced sand flies, but they're horrible. They're like little gnats that crawl all over you and you can't always see them but you feel itchy everywhere and it's so uncomfortable. So everyone immediately raced into the water to escape them, and we ended up staying in the water for the next couple of hours. We saw some cool starfish at the beach, big red and yellow ones, unlike any I had ever seen. Eventually it started raining so we decided to leave. Before we got on the bike though, Andy remember we had no fuel. Using their poor Spanish, him and his two friends tried to ask around the area if anyone had any gas (this wasn't a remote beach, but there was no town either. The area consisted of one restaurant and a thatched hut that could have bee someone's house...?). Obviously no one had any gas so the next step was to siphon gas from one of the other mopeds into Andy's empty tank. I thought it would be near impossible to find a hose to do this, but it turned out pretty easy and so we set about trying to figure out how to reach the gas tank and then who was going to have to suck on the tube and siphon the gas. We managed alright, though when Andy turned on his bike his tank was 3/4 of the way full while his friend's, Jason's, was now down to 1/4. Well we weren't about to siphon the gas again, so we set off. Not 5 minutes into the journey we lose site of Jay who is lagging behind us. We find him walking his bike up a hill and then hopping on going 10 km/hr, the highest speed his bike would allow him to go. It just would not go any faster. Great we thought, this is going to take us hours. The moped was going so slow I could have run faster. After about 10 minutes of that, the moped just all of the sudden started working like normal again yay! But all of the sudden I see sparks coming out of the back of it and it starts sputtering and backfiring. It kept going fine, though, but in an effort to avoid Jay, Andy and I managed to hit some big pieces of loose gravel and they knocked our kickstand down. It kept dragging on the ground and it was obvious that a piece got knocked off. So I walked back 50 feet or so and found a spring which looked like it belonged to the bike. But it wouldn't fit back on so I had to use my hairtie to just temporarily tie it back in place. The culmination of the experience was when maybe just 1/4 mile from the gas station, Jay's bike runs out of gas (this is the one that had started the journey back with only 1/4 of a tank after we stole most of his gas). So in the pouring rain we run gas back over to his bike and after 10 minutes, we finally safely make it back to the bike rental place and throw the keys at the guy and run away. One of the funniest/most ridiculous afternoon outings I've had here.

People Have Perished on This Volcano?

So today I climbed one of the 2 volcanoes on Ometepe Island on Lake Nicaragua. Maderas Volcano is about 1300 meters and before I decided to hike it, information and stories were circulating about the difficulty (very muddy and rocky conditions, especially now during the wet season), the length of time (8-10 hours), the view (mostly cloudy), and whether we'd make it out alive (apparently a handful of travelers "perish" every year trying to climb it. We saw reports from the BBC warning us of the danger of climbing it without a guide). I didn't climb any of the volcanoes in Guatemala, and kind of regretted not doing at least one (especially the one by Antigua where you can be about 2 feet away from lava and feel it burning on your face!). So I was determined to get my hike on in Nicaragua. Last night Lauren and I got word from our New Zealand friends who we worked with this summer that they're going to be in Costa Rica just for a couple days more and we really wanted to get together with them before they move on, so we decided to cut our stay on the island a day short, therefore forcing ourselves to decide which activities were the most important to do on our last day. Lauren wasn't really into hiking, and after working alongside the Volcano Arenal all summer, she was a bit over volcanoes. So I decided to go it without her (this was a fairly difficult decision, seeing as this would be the longest amount of time we spent apart in a month, haha). So I joined up with 2 Israelis and an Australian that were going up with a guide today.

Awesome tree that L and I climbed the day before my hike

I woke up bright and early at 6:45 and had a hearty breakfast of porridge and fruits at the hostel. After working out some minor details about the number of guides necessary for 4 people, we set off for the volcano. The hike wasn't as bad as I was expecting (last night I was honeslty preparing myself to climb Mt. Everest). The first hour was through rice and corn fields and just a little bit uphill. After that, the next 2 and a half hours or so were pretty steep and had us crawling under trees and over roots and grabbing branches to balance ourselves. The path wasn't really that well laid out either (my machete would have come in quite handy!), so we ended up getting soaked from water that was on the plants and trees from last night's rainfall. Within the first hour I had mud all over my legs and shoes and had managed to fully immerse my foot in some muddy water puddles. Luckily I was wearing proper socks and shoes and had brought the recommended 3 liters of water plus another liter just in case, so I wasn't too miserable. When we got to the top, I felt revitalized and accomplished, though this feeling merited more than the view offered. Unfortunately it was cloudy and off of one side where a view of the lake and other volcano should have been there was mist and clouds. Off of the other side luckily there was a view of a lagoon and another part of the volcano, which to be fair was pretty impressive. Of course after snapping only a few photos, my camera battery ran out on me and I was left to take in the view with my photographic memory.

hazy view at the top

Next came the hardest part, the way down. If I thought it was muddy on the way up, I found out going down was a real treat. It started raining, so there was even more mud, and I spent the next 3 and a half hours bracing myself while I slipped, skidded, and sunk my feet into every form of mud on the trail. When I got back to the hostel Lauren was there waiting for me wanting to see pictures and hear all about it. All in all, I'm glad I did it, even though the view was dissapointing. The BBC articles and reports from the embassies about travelers gone missing while attempting the hike just seem ridiculous now, it really wasn't that bad!

The sunset I came back to!

Maybe Not the Next Olympic Sport

Two days ago Lauren and I went volcano boarding, an activity that my friend Cait highly recommended after she tried it in Leon. It sounded to me like it would be something along the lines of snowboarding or sand boarding, but just on a volcano. I was mistaken; I guess I didn't examine the photos closely enough. After riding in the back of a pickup truck for close to an hour on pothole-filled dirt roads, we began our ascent of the volcano. The hike took about a half hour, not too bad, but doing it while carrying a tobbogan-like piece of wood, a backpack, and an orange jumpsuit that can only be described as belonging to a Guantanamo Bay prisoner (all of this in 95 degree heat mind you), I realized 1. How out of shape I am and 2. How much I really don't enjoy hiking. But then we got to the top and I completely forgot about the agony of the hike, wiped the dripping sweat off of my face, and took in the amazing view. From the top you could see a giant hole plus a combination of ash, sulfur, graphite, and calcium from when the Cerro Negro volcano last erupted (in 1992 and 1999). Supposedly it erupts every 7 years, but it didn't erupt in 2006 so they're still waiting...
After oohing and awing at the spectacular views, it was time to put on our jumpsuits and goggles and "fall off" the volcano as our guide put it. Being the only girls in the group, Lauren and I were made to go first because, as our female guide said, it's more fun to see the boys crash and burn from the bottom (sidenote: she was totally right!). Lauren was terrified, and I was a bit nervous but not admitting it. We were both going good at first, but we were given instructions to eventually put our feet out on either side and lightly tap the surface to break, but we were goign so fast (68 km/hr) that it was too hard to pull our feet back up on the board and we ended up spewing rocks all up in our faces and body. It was thrilling for about 5 seconds, until I ate so much volcanic ash that by the end of it I was about 3 skin shades darker. One guy we were with got so much momentum and couldn't slow down that he ended up flipping head over feet multiple times down the volcano, cutting his head and nose up. Perhaps the most worthwhile part of the trip was upon arrival, when our free mojito was hastily handed to us.


The rest of our time in Leon was spent lounging around the hostel, meeting fellow travelers, walking around the city, and trying to find the best street food for the best deal. Oh, and we did get in our share of culture by going to the house where Ruben Dario grew up (Nicaragua's most famous poet), which is now a museum.

Halfway Through Central America

Lauren and I are in the third country in our Central America travels (well fourth if you count starting in Costa Rica), and we are loving it, especially after Honduras, which we spent all of 5 days in. Two of those days were fully devoted to riding squished in both mini shuttle buses and "chicken buses" as they're called (Central America pimped out yellow American school buses), and the other three days were comprised of me getting over my bout with traveler's diarrhea and other ailments while Lauren took my temperature and fed me pills and crackers. But here in Leon Nicaragua, everything is good, and we're back on schedule (if we ever had one).

Honduras was a fine country but there's not a ton to do and see, and most of the tourists falling the "gringo trail" as it's called, go to the Bay Islands on the Carribean to get certified in diving. Since neither Lauren nor I really felt the need to spend $250 and a week to get certified, we decided to go to a smaller town along the Carribean coast. Tela was supposedly built up for tourists, but it was dissapointing, and sketchy at night, so we only spent 1 day there. On our way to another part of Honduras, we had to switch buses in a main city and bus hub. While sprinting to the bathroom after our 4 hour bus ride with no bathroom breaks, Lauren heard her name being called and we found Itala, one of our coworkers from this summer, standing there in the mix of bustling people. She was traveling with my good friend, Cait, working their way up Central America from Panama, and we had tried to get together with them for at least a couple days in Honduras, but it wasn't working out. So I was ecstatic to see Itala and made her take me to see Cait immediately. Although it was only a couple of hours, I'm glad I got to see Cait and talk about the things we had done and places we had stayed during our travels while we both waited for our buses. Lauren and I had only been in Honduras 3 days and we were ready to leave, but we thought we owed it to the country to give it one last shot so we headed to a small town called La Esperanza (Hope) in the highlands with a lot cooler weather and seasonal fruits like apples, pears, and peaches that we were craving from back home. That was where I was sick, so Lauren thankfully made us get a room with a private bathroom and TV. We spent most of the time there in the hotel watching Grey's Anatomy and Friends while eating fruit and peanut butter sandwiches.

Luckily, those 2 days in La Esperanza were just the ticket I needed to get over my sickness so Lauren and I decided we were ready to move on to Nicaragua. Getting here was a bit of a struggle and it took 6 buses, one taxi, and 36 hours to finally get to our destination (a distance that should have taken a smooth 6 or 8 hour car ride back in the U.S. I'm sure). When we got to the hostel, the first things we asked about was their kithen and book exchange, because during the past week of traveling and not doing much, Lauren and I had 1. eaten too much packaged and processed food/greasy food from street vendors and 2. exhausted our reading supplies and were desperate for some good literature. We got a decent kitchen and cooked a fine meal that night, and though our hostel's library had a meager selection of books, we found some decent ones at another hostel across the street. For the most part the hostel is pretty cool, tomorrow we're doing the volcano boarding tour that it offers. My friend Cait did it and raved about it. I'm picturing snow/sand boarding but on a volcano. The pictures show big orange jumpsuits and the price includes a mojito, so sign me up! We'll be doing that tomorrow in the morning. Then on Friday we might do a 3 day hike up to a volcano which has views of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Pacific Ocean. It also includes swimming in a lagoon, which is Lauren's criteria for any hike we do. Fine by me!

Almost out of Guatemala

Today me and Lauren were supposed to leave Rio Dulce, Guatemala for Honduras, but we weren't sure about the bus schedule and missed the direct bus to the city we want to go to in Honduras. Oh well, we just have to spend another day here in this little town on the river, which the coast guard says is the best place for yachters in the area to store their boats during the hurricane season.

Lake Atitlan, with San Pedro Volcano in the background

So an update on the past week or two. After Antigua, Lauren and I went to the Atitlan Lake, which is a couple hours west of Antigua and Guatemala City. We took a small boat across the lake to this small town called San Marcos that was full of hippies, rainforest, and not much to do. The day after we arrived, we set off on a small hike to another town about a 3 hour walk/hike away. The path was right on the lake, set up in the hills a little, so the view was amazing, and we got some good photos, especially of me and my machete (the machete I bought in San Jose with my mom, which I was finally able to put to good use on this walk, as I had heard petty theft was not uncommon in the area).

Later that day I went to yoga at a nearby hotel and met some Irish girls who had been traveling through Latin America for the past 9 months. They told us to check out San Pedro, another small town on the lake, so Lauren and I went there the following day. When we got there, we headed straight to this market that was about 2 hrs away. I tried to haggle with a woman about a scarf/pashmina that I was set on buying for no more than 40 quetzales (about $5) and so when she offered it to me for, 50 I said no. Thirty seconds later, after debating about it in my head and Lauren finally telling me to go for it, I went graveling back to the woman and paid the 50 quetzales. Lauren did some of her own haggling as well and got a change purse and a headband (that we found out later could only be made for a child's head, as it barely fit around either one of our's thighs). On the way back to San Pedro, we met some Argentines who were more or less on the same route as us through Guatemala, so we joined forces with them and a couple of days later headed up north to Coban and then to Semuc Champey.

Don't really know how to describe Semuc Champey, but I've added photos so you can get the gist. We climbed up to a lookout point, which was amazing, and then went down to swim in the limestone, crystal pools. The water was cool and refreshing, though too cold for one of our Argentine friends, who finally went in after we splashed and pushed him in. Later that day we went on a tour of these caves near our hotel which were just incredible. Unfortunately we couldn't take a camera inside (and seeing as it was pitch black, there was no way it would have worked, even with a waterproof camera). The tour started with the guide handing each of us a candle, which we were to carry with us, lit, throughout the tour. This sounds easy, but when you have to swim and climb up cliffs and waterfalls, it sort of presents a problem. Especially when one of the people who are with can't swim. So there's the 5 of us, doggy paddling along with one hand and with the other holding a candle above our heads, trying not to let it touch the water, while bats squeak and flutter above our heads. A little terrifying, not going to lie. But it was an amazing tour. We got to jump off 3 meter high cliffs into water, scale up rocks, and slide down small waterfalls. It was one of the best things I've done all summer.

Me and Lauren with two of our Argentine friends, Mauro and Manuel, at the lookout of Semuc Champey

After we got back, we were exhausted, and had to wake up at 5 a.m. the next day for what turned into a long day of traveling consisting of 3 buses, one taxi, and a boat ride in order to get to Flores, in the northern part of Guatemala, near the Mexican border. From Flores we checked out the Mayan ruins of Tikal, which to be honest, were pretty impressive, but not as impressive as the ones I saw in Mexico (Palenque and Chichen Itza). We ended up doing an early morning tour (or late evening you could call it, the bus came to pick us up at 3 a.m.) to try to catch the sunrise, but it was too hazy and cloudy so we didn't see it. Oh well, the sunrise tour was worth it at least because it would have been way too hot to go any later than 8 a.m.

me, Lauren, and I think Mauro in the background on one of the highest temples in Tikal

After Tikal, Lauren and I had to part ways with the Argentines, which was quite sad, as we had been traveling with them for almost a week. But they were going to Mexico and we were set on not following them and making our way down to Honduras. So now we're in Rio Dulce and we went to the waterfall that the town is known for this morning. It's this hot waterfall that falls into a river of cool water and was another one of the best things I've done in Guatemala. When we asked the local kids who were there where the water comes from, they shrugged their shoulders and looked at us with a dumbfounded look, which seems to be the general reaction we get from all Central American teenagers

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Lauren jumping off of the hot waterfall in Rio Dulce

Guatecate

I made it to Guatemala! I'm so glad to be here, it's a lot different from Costa Rica and reminds me of Mexico. Me and Lauren's first stop was Guatemala City which was very commercialized, lots of fast food joints, malls, and American companies. The guy we stayed with, Ricardo, was very friendly and everything worked out perfectly with him. He works for Frito Lay and when I asked about his wife, he told us they were kind of separated and were probably going to get a divorce. So we could tell he was pretty lonely and I was glad we were there to give him some entertainment. The first night he took us on a night tour around Guatemala City when there weren't a lot of people and traffic. We went up to this hilltop lookout too so we could see the city from above. Then he took us out to dinner at a Mexican place. He was so nice and couldn't stop talking about traveling, American culture, Guatemalan people, etc. We stayed two nights there and were sad to leave him. Our first couch surfing experience was a huge success, both Ricardo and Lauren and I were glad everything worked out.

After we left Ricardo, we came to Antigua, which we heard was super touristy but a point of departure for the other places we want to visit. It's not that touristy here (we were prepared for your typical ignorant, embarrassing gringos), so we were pleasantly surprised to see mainly a lot of Europeans who were there taking classes at the many Spanish schools here. The cobblestoned streets, antique ruins, horse carts and costumed indigenous people selling any item you can imagine on the street all reminded me of San Cristobol in Mexico or Trinidad, Cuba. We've just been in awe walking around the town, with all of the shops, restaurants, and people to gawk at, it's been quite entertaining. We walked through a pretty big market yesterday, but it wasn't as big as the one I went to with my mom in San Jose. While meandering around today, we happend upon a group of elementary school aged kids having band practice on the street. They were all girls (except for one boy playing a drum, strange) and were quite good, accompanied by some dancing and baton-twirling-very impressive. Today we walked up Cerro de la Cruz, a little hill with a great view of the city at the top. There used to be a lot of robberies on that trail so they started having Antigua tourism police acompanying tourists twice daily up there. So we went to their office to potentially meet up with other tourists to do the walk up there, but there were no others so Lauren and I were personally escorted by both a male and female police officer on the 45 minute or so walk to the look out. The officers were pretty chummy with each other and made it clear this was not their idea of a fun little walk, so Lauren and I set the pace and walked out ahead of them. We had to stop multiple times to wait for them to catch up, but at the end of the day, it was nice to feel a little important and have our own little police escort service with us.

There's a volcano that is close by that we were thinking of hiking, but we're kind of volcano-ed out, having spent many weeks doing programs that involved volcanoes in Costa Rica. So we're going to give ourselves a little time before we attack any more of them here in Guatemala. For now, me and Lauren are telling ourselves we're on vacation and we don't need to push ourselves too much, haha. Tomorrow we're off to Lake Atitlan, which has various little towns surrounding it as well as volcanoes, of course.

Leaving Costa Rica

My last couple weeks in Costa Rica were really nice, especially without having to work. The rest of my time with my mom, and later with my stepdad and stepsister, was really nice and relaxing. Though I had to play the part of tour guide and translator (especially when we got pulled over by the cops for speeding as we were making our way back from Manuel Antonio to San Jose for their flight-I was not the one driving by the way, it was my mom. And yes, luckily we managed to finagle our way out of getting a ticket), I was still glad that they came. After they left on Friday, I came back to San Jose and a bunch of the other guides were still around and our manager planned a trip to go rafting in a town where the language program was, Turrialba, which is 2 hours from San Jose. So about 25 of us went there Saturday. It was a long day though, the bus got us at 6:30 a.m. and we didn't get back until around 8 at night. But it was the best time I've had rafting yet. That was my 3rd time on that river and the water level was perfect. That combined with the fact that we went without kids and I was in the front made it ace.

So now, I'm definitely ready to leave San Jose and Costa Rica. I'm leaving for Guatemala with my friend Lauren today! I'm so excited. We're arriving at the Guatemala City airport later tonight and we're going to couch surf! Maybe I should explain: couchsurfing is the practice of connecting with people all over the world and instead of having to pay for a place to stay, people offer up their couches, spare bedrooms, whatever space they have for you to stay there. The web site makes it super safe because people have to be referred and verified that they've had good couch surfing experiences. The guy who we're staying with is married and has been all over the world couch surfing. I'm sure many people are concerned right now and still don't think it's all that safe. But I have friends who've done and I've talked to various people about it and I think it'll be ok and I'm comfortable with it. I just can't wait to truly start traveling now!

Enough Excitement for the Whole Week

My mom finally arrived on Tuesdsay! After 3 days of sea kayaking, sleeping on the ground, peeing in the jungle, and cold showers, I was so ready to drop off the girls from my final group with Rustic and relax by the pool at a nice hotel with my mom. Though sea kayaking was cool, it wasn't exactly what I (or any of the girls for that matter) was expecting. We were actually in a gulf so it wasn't rough kayaking, just long and boring at times. My arms were burning after the first 15 minutes, no joke. But I had to put on a smile and positive attitude for the girls, who were fairing far worse than myself. They were not ready for the camping part of the trip either, especially in the rain. But we made roughed it and made it through with some good times like: learning how to properly open a coconut and make coconut candy; drink fresh lemon grass tea from natural lemon grass we found in the wild; visit an animal sanctuary with various types of monkeys (a spider monkey climbed on me and actually sat on my shoulders!), birds, and other animals that were being nurtured and cared for until they were ready to be released into the wild; and see dolphins jumping in the water from a distance. Everyone was thrilled to get back to civilization, but we got to experience a part of Costa Rica that not many other people get to.

So when my mom came, we explored San Jose a bit, but the city is not one of Latin America's finest, so after hitting up a couple of museums and a market, we went back to the hotel and relaxed. We got a rental car yesterday so today we set off for the Poas Volcano, which I had been to back when I came here with my high school 6 years ago, but barely remembered it. We got our fill of excitement within the first 10 minutes of setting out on our journey to the volcano when while merging onto the highway I "grazed" a police vehicle. I say graze because my mother claims I hit it, but we were barely nudged by the police car because I slammed on the breaks when it came into my lane. Back at home this would have been a ticket and a half, but the police officers just came over and made sure we and the car were ok, and sped off within 5 minutes. Pura vida! (Costa Rican saying for basically everything: awesome, great, thanks, cool, etc).

So despite that minor set back, we got to the volcano pretty early, but when we tried to see the massive crater and lagoon that the volcano is known for we were hugely let down because of the damn early morning fog. We took a 30 minute walk to one of the volcano's other, not as cool lagoons, and then decided to give this crater a second shot. Luckily, the fog had cleared and the view was amazing! Just like I had remembered it.

After the volcano we went to some la Paz Waterfall Gardens, which consist of 6 waterfalls and different animal houses. There were hummingbirds, monkeys, butterflies, birds, frogs, etc. It was cool, but after seeing all of those things in the wild, it felt fake and wasn't as good as the real deal. But the waterfalls were pretty cool. Oh, and they didn't top the sloth we saw hanging from a telephone wire on the way to the gardens! Amazing, it was probably only 15 feet up!

Since it was only around 2 pm and we still had half a day left when we finished there, we decided to give a the Cafe Britt coffee tour a try. Our handy guide book said there were only 3 tours offered throughout the day and they're during high season (we're in the low tourist season now), but being the apparent optimist that I am, I thought they would somehow be able to arrange a special tour just for us when we arrived. After going in the complete opposite direction and 15 kilmoters out of the way, we finally made it to the coffee place and no, of course there were no tours, there was but just one a day, at 11 a.m., though the gift shop was open until 5 p.m. and would we like to browse through there. Of course we would. At least there was free chocolate and coffee.

Two hours (when it should have only taken 30 minutes) and a half a dozen u-turns later, we finally arrived, exhausted and sore (the hikes to the volcano and waterfalls was rough!), to our hotel. Tomorrow we get to have more adventures through the twisty-turning roads and unmarked highways of Costa Rica to pick up my stepdad and stepsister at the airport! Pura vida!

Almost Done in Costa Rica

At the end of June I started noticing that I was writing email after email to various friends and family telling them more or less the same thing of my adventures/experiences in Costa Rica. The idea of a blog occurred to me but I really haven't gotten a chance to sit down and create once until now. So even though I'm down to my last couple of weeks in Costa Rica, I figured I could start this now and continue it throughout my trip through Central America.

To give you all an update, I'm currently working for a company called Rustic Pathways as a guide. Rustic offers 1-2 week language, travel/adventure, and community service-based programsin various countries to high school kids. I'm like their counselor, and have worked on the language program, in which kids live with local families, take Spanish classes for half the day, and then do activities the other half, and the volcanoes and rainforest program where kids stay at this amazing base house and do community service and adventure activities.

Right now, I am on a program called Heart of the Jungle that travels with kids for 2 weeks throughout the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica doing community service and experiencing the jungle! We have 16 girls this session and there are 3 of us guides total. It can be stressful and some patience is definitely necessary, but I've really enjoyed myself. We taught English a couple of days at a local elementary school, painted schools, and cleaned up a beach. As for adventure activities, we rappeled down a 150 ft waterfall, (which really wasn't that terrifying, though one girl did stop in the middle crying and refusing to continue and had to be coerced down) and climbed a 60 ft tree with roots and trunks everywhere (it reminded me of those wacky walking and talking trees from Lord of the Rings). We've gotten to see so much cool wildlife, like a ton of monkeys (white-faced, howler, squirrel, spider monkeys), toucans, iguanas, poison dart frogs, coatis (mix between an anteater and a raccoon), butterflies, and lots and lots of snakes and bugs.

At one place that we stayed at on the beach we encountered a Terciopelo or fer-de-lance snake, one of the most poisonous snakes in Costa Rica. It was devouring a huge toad whole and was probably 10 feet away from where we were eating. It was insane! The chef came out and killed it by stabbing it with 2 long sticks and then smashing it repeatedly. We then saw the same type of snake while playing in a waterfall after a 7 hour hike (yes 7 hrs! it was totally worth it, we saw a ton of animals, but I was grateful to finally come to this cool waterfall, sans the sleeping, ready to pounce snake) . This one was even closer and one of the girls pointed it out. When they all asked if it was poisonous I was just like "nahhh, don't worry, it's just sleeping" while in my head I was freaking out just a little, as we were in the middle of NOWHERE and I was definitely not prepared to helicopter out one of 15 year old, naive as hell girls.

Yesterday we visited a sustainable hotel that makes its own gas by way of the following process: the composted garbage gets fed to a pig and the poop from said pig is transfered to this HORRIFIC SMELLING area where it is covered by a tarp and the solids sink to the bottom while the gas fumes from the poop get filtered out through a tube and voila, there you have methane gas that the employees use for cooking their meals (they do not use this gas for cooking guests' meals and I can't help but be suspicious as to why not...). But the hotel also uses solar power, salt water pools, bungalows made from local trees and leaves, and properly labeled fridges with 4 doors instead of 2 so less energy is wasted when you have to reach in to grab one little thing. They give guests reusable water bottles so they don't have to buy 10,000 plastic water bottles during their stay just to have water. The rates for the hotel are through the roof, but it was cool to see that those places exist to not only make guests feel good about themselves, but to educate them about the environment and community too, so it's a bit of a learning experience too.

Tomorrow we leave for a 3 day sea kayaking trip that'll wrap up our 2 week journey! I'm super excited, and hope that it doesn't get ruined by foul weather and even fouler moods. No, but really, the girls have been good for the most part. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they signed up because this is a brand new program this year, so I have to give them a little credit. When I'm done with them on Tuesday, my mom is coming into Costa Rica for 10 days so I'm pumped for that too. We're going to spend some time in San Jose, though CR'S capital is a bit of a dump, so we won't be spending too long there. Then we're heading to the beach-Manuel Antonio- because contrary to popular belief, spending a whole summer in Costa Rica does not guarantee beaches and bronzed bods; just in this past week I've gotten more sun that I had all summer working on language or volcanoes!

After my mom leaves, I'm leaving for Guatemala (I think) with Cait, a friend from AU, and 2 other friends that we met while working here. We're working our way down Central America in a month, but I'm sureeee our plans will change and we'll have to push our flights back. Seeing as we don't even have flights for Guatemala yet, which I think we're planning on leaving for at the end of August, we're kind of in the traveler's mindset and will just play it be ear...