Panama and San Blas

September 6th - 12th


Still waiting...

Panama is a looooong country - the projected journey was 15.5 hours, and although ours took a little more than 18 hours, more than a third of that time was spent at the border crossing! We were unloaded off the bus on the Costa Rica side to get our exit stamp at about 4:30am.  Already exhausted from shaking in the bus's arctic temps (the nausea-inducing kind), everyone was none too pleased when we were relocated outside only to wait until someone showed up to work at the window slightly before 8am. The Panama had similar wait times for the stamp and bag check (PS proof of onward travel required), but we were at least entertained by the various "trajes" of the indigenous people that were passing through as well. Soon after that debacle, our bus had a little breakdown problem for about 45 minutes or so. Luckily, I had taken Bendaryl 50mg in hopes to sleep, so I missed a good portion of the actual driving and, according to Hannah, a checkpoint or two - reason #721 why traveling with someone is advantageous: when they cannot wake you after multiple shakes and taps, they check for chest rise and then go into your bag to hand the waiting policeman your passport! Thanks to Hannah and the makers of Benadryl! When we arrived to Panama, people cheered! Our hostel is situated in Casco Viejo, the "Old Quaters" of Panama and is, quite literally, across the street from the Presidential Palace. The view of Panama City is what you may find on postcards, and they had a paved walking and bike path (or ciclovia) that ran along the water from Casco Viejo into the city center...could not have a better location! 


The next couple of days were spent exploring the antiquity and run-down beauty of our area and walking the length of the exercise path. The city itself reminds me a little of Tampa Bay - sky-scrapers, a causeway, great pedestrian paths along the water, and similar climate. We love the presence of sport and exercise here - there are 6 nice basketball courts  along the pathway where you will almost always find groups playing (futbol mostly, but occasionally basketball as well). One night, we watched a group of Panamanians "playing" basketball and, although no rules were observed and there was lots of double-dribbling, traveling, bear-hug guarding, and shanking off the backboard (and fence sometimes) going on, they were having a BLAST and it was refreshing to see. Another court had middle-aged women running simple futbol drills while being coached and encouraged by men in business suits - they were of similar athletic caliber as the basketball group, but again, soooo fun! Plus, this is really the first time we've seen kids having the opportunity to be kids! Panama City also provided us entertainment in the form of cab rides - always exciting and rarely legal. by far, my favorite driver was an older gentleman who wore cut-off leather gloves and pretended he was a race car driver - to compensate for the fact he had an automatic, he would shift into neutral at stoplights in order to rev his engine before shifting back into drive once the light changed! Classic!




On the eighth, Hannah and I made our way out to the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal by way of their "chicken buses" (similar use of color to Guatemala's but they use much more chrome and "bling" here). Due to my lack of knowledge about the Canal, I hadn't really understood why it is "one of the greatest engineering feats to date." Now we do! The museum at Miraflores is very comprehensive, interactive, and provides a plethora of visual aids to enhance one's understanding of the canal's history and significance. The canal itself has many different elevations throughout its 27 kilometers and so, to aid in the passage of ships, the locks transfer water between lanes by gravitational flow to either raise or lower the ship to the same level as the upcoming section of the canal! We had the opportunity to watch a rather large ship go through the locks and be lowered for the next portion of canal! It was really interesting to watch - in real time, paint could dry in the time it takes one large ship to be guided through the locks, yet it still was quite exciting! Others thought so too - in less than ten minutes, we went from being two of ten people on the museum roof/canal-viewing area to being squished up against the walls mosh-pit style by a group of 100+ that came out of nowhere. Also, it was nice to learn of the canal's significance within the country - especially since Panama took 100% control over the Canal and it's functioning in 2001, it is a huge source of national pride amongst Panamanians. Miraflores was simply a wonderful experience! On a side note, it won our Central America superlative for "best gift shop," so that's a plus as well.




A ship passing through the canal! Here are the water levels before...


...and after. As you can see in Hannah's face, it is pretty amazing!

The weekend brought us San Blas, an archipelago of 160-plus picturesque islands all owned by the indigenous Kuna! Phones only work about 30% of the time on the islands, so making a reservation at one of the islands with cabanas was quite a production. After the transport van (with A/C!!) picked us up at 5:30, we were then driven to the office to pay all necessary fees. It was there where we told them at which island we planned on staying - when we said ours, we got the same confused look we'd received from, well, everyone we'd spoken to about San Blas. A few phone calls later by the office staff and we were told the island is the furthest out and would take six-plus hours by boat and, resultantly, about $500 more! Whaaaaaat?!?! Thus, we went with his recommendation given our criteria - pretty and as uninhabited as possible!  We met two great Aussies, Gemma and Keith, during the transport fiasco - bus ride, border patrol (aka policeman sitting in a plastic lawn chair by the docks who compares your passport to the travel manifest), boat ride to another "immigration control" office on the island of Porvenir (where the "airport" is, and by airport, I mean 70-yard strip of shorter grass that is used by island footballers), and boat trek to our respective islands. One island stood out as more picturesque than many we'd passed, and as we all positioned ourselves to get a clear picture of it, the boat slowed down and Batman Kuna Mullet (the Kuna man with a mullet and Batman visor who drove the boat) announced it was Iguana - the island we were staying on!!! It looked like the islands you see on those "Dream" posters! We explored the views from every point on the island, which is less than 50-square yards of white sand and home to about ten cabanas. That evening, we had a round-table meal (HUGE blue fish caught by the resident Kuna family) with the others staying on our island - three separate Israeli couples, a pair of German brothers, Gemma, and ourselves. The great conversation carried us through the evening. On a side note: so relaxing to be someplace where you don't have to watch your bags all the time and the greatest threats are the falling coconuts - seriously, they would drop FEET away from us...those things can legitimately kill you! We would just hear thuds throughout the night every half hour or so - CRAZY! Hannah and I started looking up when we walked and strolled along the ¨beach¨ in order to evade the potential danger, because really, what an awful way to go!


Batman Kuna Mullet


The island we shared with the Kuna!




Pretty much how we feel being on this island!


All day Saturday, our exchanges would be like "who are we?", "who does this?", and "we are blessed!" We ate dinner with Gemma and Keith, who made it over on an early morning boat to stay on Isla de Iguana because, well, who wouldn't want to move to the best island in San Blas!?! Then, the post-breakfast swim and wade in the crystal blue waters. Hannah and I spotted a group of three teenage Kuna in their wooden canoe who were fishing a little further out...so, like any sane person would do, we joined them! Our skills for, well, anything relating to fishing aren't that great to start with, but then replace the standard pole with a spear + a stick with a rounded piece of metal on the end = we watched. It was a workout in and of itself to simply stay in the canoe and not flip it! Add to that the catches they'd already made, HUGE crabs and lobsters in the bottom of the canoe whose sole purpose was to pinch whoever they thought put them in the boat in the first place. While we "helped" by shoveling warm water from the base of the canoe and replacing it with cooler ocean water via shoes, these kids dove down 15+ meters with only a mask and snorkel...we wouldn't see them for MINUTES!! It was absolutely incredible! When they returned, they held lobsters the size of my neck and head up triumphantly while simultaneously moaning slightly due to the INSANE pressure build-up in their heads! To humor us, and maybe themselves, they paddled the canoe over to shallower water, about 7-8 meters, and dropped one of the lobsters to the ocean floor so we could try and catch it with the stick and metal loop thingy. The pressure in your head is CRAZY...and that was only HALF the depth that they went. Needless to say, whether it was my lack of skill or my vegetarian subconscious, I was highly unsuccessful. Spearfishing...equally unsuccesful and spent the majority of time humming Dori's "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" while underwater. We were called into lunch via conch shell, had a short game of volleyball afterwards, and then futbol with the Australians and two Panamanians vacationing on Iguana as well. Hannah and I were on a team with Kafu Bonton, who we later discovered is a very famous reggae singer in Central America! Hannah, Keith, and I wanted to make it a tri-sport day, so we played catch with...a small coconut, as one does on the best island ever! As the sun began to set, we headed back into the water and were serenaded by Kafu's friend Mario as he rapped to a reggae beat about us being on the island. The best part = we actually understood it!! Dinner brought coconut rice and salad, crazy music, an impromptu dance lesson led by Mario, and a long series of jumping pictures! An AMAZING DAY!!


The end product of all of their hard work! Ours is that exact plate, minus the seafood. So yes, just rice :)


The winning futbol team with our teammate (and first celebrity encounter) Kafu Bonton.


One of many amazing jumping pictures!


Hannah and I hanging out with Aussie Keith.

Sunday brought an early, wet boat ride back to Porvenir for another "Immigration" check. Luckily, the sun came out for the later half of the ride back, allowing us to dry off before getting on the awesomely air-conditioned bus! The driver stopped at Portobelo's fortress ruins that sit on the Caribbean - absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We said our goodbyes to Keith and headed back to Luna's Castle to organize our lives before our flight the next day. There were some street and market vendors in the main square of Casco Viejo, so we walked around a bit and bought empanadas made by a woman originally from Coral Gables, which reminded me of my FAMILY! Love that! We couldn't leave Panama City before a quick pickup game of basketball. As we approached the courts and sat on the bench, one guy asked if we were wanting to play - he literally walked on the court and stopped the game of 4-on-4 to allow us to join! It was refreshing to play again and with HANNAH - she is such a natural athlete and shocked the boys quite a bit!!!! One of the guys on her team, "Ruff Dad," was also a reggaeton artist! That was THE perfect way to end our time in Panama City!



THANK YOU CENTRAL AMERICA FOR ALL THE EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE GIVEN US AND THE LESSONS YOU HAVE TAUGHT US! WE ARE GRATEFUL!

Costa Rica - Pura Vida!

August 31st - September 6th

On August 31, Hannah and I decided over the free French toast breakfast to go explore Costa Rica. Huge shout out to our parents for giving us the opportunities growing up that would eventually allow us to travel like we are currently - we think about this often!

Hannah and I hopped on over the border into Costa Rica, land of the"Pura Vida" mentality and lifestyle. We spent the evening in a town called Liberia, wandering the streets full of actual stores and slowly adjusting to the commercialism of this tourist-friendly country. The next day was a travel day (bus + car + ferry + bus = 10-plus hours) from Punta Arenas across Golfo de Nicoya to Montezuma, a very relaxed, hippie town on the beach where you are an obvious outsider if you don't have dreads. Decompressing from a travel day is much easier to do when you have a private room facing the ocean and a soundtrack of waves crashing against the rocks! Just sayin'. We wandered the "town" (town = two roads totaling about 300 meters) and, like moths to a lightbulb, found the grocery store in about 25 seconds flat. Trying our best to cope with the higher economy, we managed to make a somewhat gourmet dinner of mozzarella/tomato foccacia with a side of cucumber and avocado salad! Nom nom. Bananagrams and reading rounded out the evening quite well.


What is the most logical thing to do after roughly 14 hours of heavy rain? If you are thinking hike upstream to a set of waterfalls, then we welcome you to join us on our adventures! As per usual, Hannah and I set out for Montezuma Falls in flip-flops, only to realize the inappropriate footwear choice about 3 minutes into the journey. The current was quite strong at the intended river crossing area, so we headed upstream along the bank. Whether it was shuffling our feet along the rocky bottom of the river at a crossing or grasping for roots and low tree branches to keep from sliding off the steep, muddy trail, we looked...special. From a distance, one would probably have thought I dropped a contact and was frantically (and blindly) looking for it with the 'extended arms shuffle step' approach. After taking the steeper (and incorrect) trail option, we eventually became eye-level with the top of the main waterfall as it came into view. The thundering sound and sheer power of the water never ceases to amaze. With the help of the many trees and roots along the trail, we slowly made our way down to the base of the falls and sat to enjoy them for a bit. After taking the actual trail back, we decided to walk along the beach back to town and take in some different scenery. We could have sat and watched the huge waves crash up against the rock faces for hours, but the legitimate fear of a ninja crab staging a stealth attack kept us moving. There were SO many and they move alarmingly fast...but sideways and on the sides of vertical rocks? Though the walk from our hostel to the waterfalls trailhead was only about 10 minutes, we had walked a solid 90 minutes before realizing, "hey, do you think we passed the town?" The next person we passed informed us we were only 300 meters away from Playa Grande, which is about 5km north of Montezuma. Schwoops. When we finally did get back to town, we discovered the beach entrance to town was about 50 meters from where we decided to start our beach stroll. The rest of the evening consisted of watching the eight monkeys eat and play in the tree right outside our door...what? Where are we?!? After dark, we went to a restaurant with wi-fi and a free movie, ordered the cheapest drinks on the menu, and took turns smuggling food in from the neighboring supermarket once the lights had been turned down for "Inception." A sad site, but even our waiter appreciated our efforts and chuckled.





Looooong travel day on Saturday...or at least the 10 hour day seemed longer due to the fact the last 2 hours on the bus heading into Monteverde were done in first gear (lots of super steep roads). The day ended on a high note when, as soon as we stepped foot off the bus, we were offered a $7/night private room! Score! The next morning, Hannah and I had an adventure day full of adrenalin and vomit-inducing activities! First up was the canopy tour, which was a series zip lines of various lengths that included one 800-meter "Superman" style zip line and a "Tarzan Swing." After gearing up (side note: there is very little sexier than repelling gear), Hannah and I headed out on the course, soaring over Monteverde's lush mountainous landscapes. The zip lines themselves start short and get progressively longer the further you go. On the last zip line, your harness is flipped around so you are positioned belly down and parallel with the ground - not awkward or uncomfortable at all! Waiting to go, you feel like a pup that's being held in a mother's mouth, but once you get going, the position allows a completely different aerial perspective that one can't get any other way - very fun! The landing was a little rough...the only thing that come to mind is a crash test dummy with rag doll limbs flying all about (the fantastic picture below with Hannah in the foreground was taken solely to capture the landing of the person behind her).




...and then, the Tarzan Swing! Enough adrenaline to make you vomit. In short, you walk to end of a loose, swinging metal bridge to the "jump point," and as the name would indicate, you free fall until the swing mechanism decides to work. Hannah hesitantly strolled out on the bridge as the screams of the previous jumper echoed in the trees. Legs don't work so well when the adrenaline is pumping, so from a distance, I could only see Hannah shifting her weight from one bent, wobbly leg to the other. They started to get her all hooked up and then they beckoned me to start walking - I thought "yay, I can get a great aerial video of her..." blood-curdling SCREEEAAAMMMM accompanied Hannah's sudden absence from the end of the bridge! Ps...if you are ever hesitant about doing something crazy, volunteer to go first! Hearing other people (especially cool, calm, collected friends scream louder than you have ever heard anyone scream in your life) go before you will typically deter you from wanting to do your extreme activity, so just go first. So having heard that while feeling the bouncing and shaking of the suspension platform beneath me, I did my best to pull it together mentally. What doesn't help is getting to the end of the platform, where you can see how far up you are, and waiting...because a piece of harness broke!! All very reassuring things. Plus, your mind is focused on the task at hand...to have my limited Spanish knowledge tested with random phrases like "necesito una cable...este es rompio" really throws the psyche off...and allows nausea to build. Luckily, once they hooked me up to the new cables, they opened the little baby gate (the same "here we go" moment I would think a rider waiting atop his bull experiences as the gate swings open) and the weight of everything pulls you off the platform, leaving you minimal time to think about the situation at hand. According to Hannah, who was waiting at the bottom, my body made a whoooooshing sound as I silently fell through the air and swung back up. Good to know when faced with extreme challenges, I revert to silence. Afterwards, we gradually decompressed and our legs slowly got feeling back as we watched a few more people jump. We were entertained by the photos taken of us by a staff member for a half-hour before heading to off to our ATV adventure.




Believe it or not, this was taken AFTER we did it!

Bryan, our fearless and probably 17-year-old guide, led us through a series of terrain paths to test our driving and turning abilities. Hannah and I lucked out because we were the only two doing the ATVs...the smaller the group, the more you can do, always! So after 30-40 minutes of riding through mud puddles and around the terrain park, Bryan gave us the okay to move ahead. He took along gravel, dirt, and grass pathways that winded through the farmlands and along the hillsides of the surrounding eco-reserves running throughout Monteverde. The views were UNREAL...the position Bryan assumed for a good portion of the ride was stopped, looking over his left shoulder and waiting as we took tons of pictures! The clouds were thicker at the beginning of the ride, so when Bryan would take a turn, he would momentarily disappear into the white abyss, which just enhanced the already-enchanting morning we'd had! Plus, being in a could makes primary things more magical - the outlines of trees became so much sharper and resultantly, the tree appeared more expressive. Nearly every time we would stop to take in the views, we would turn to Bryan and exclaim, "you live here, that is CRAZY!" Definitely one of the most memorable experiences to date on this trip!




After the adventures, we headed to Casa Amistad in San Jose, a peace-based hostel that hosted various peace-minded meetings of local Costa Rican Quakers and had a library full of books highlighting revolutionaries, martyrs, and pro-civil rights movements. Basically, everyone that passed through that house knew more that I did about....well, everything. It's as though they built this house for my friend Ashley! We met Andre, a Canadian born in Arlington, VA who lived in Peru for 5 years during his youth, lived in Cuba for a year while studying, and arrived to Costa Rica two days prior in order to teach English for a year - he kinda knows something about everything, especially relating to Latin American history and state of current affairs. These are the types of people you meet at Casa Amistad. The next morning, we toured a little bit of San Jose before meeting up with Andre at the Teatro Nacional, where pigeons literally fly at your face, to explore some more. We ate our first real Costa Rican meal (not the usual peanut butter and crackers) and spent hours in two great bookstores once the rain started to become more steady. One of them was a used bookstore that just had PILES of books everywhere - on the floor, in the corners, on the chairs, on top of the ones stacked in the shelves, on the checkout counter...AMAZING! Nothing like the smell of older books! As the rain died down, we headed back to the hostel to pack and get ready for another long overnight bus ride.






Next up, PANAMA!! Hope all is well with everyone back home...you are missed more than you know!

Isla de Ometepe and San Juan Del Sur

August 27th - 31st

We headed out for a long day of travel after some quick errands and inquiring about Red Cross volunteering opportunities in Granada. Chicken bus to taxi to a very charismatic old tugboat-style ferry that took us across the HUGE Lake Nicaragua to Isla de Ometepe, a larger island consisting of twin volcanos, Ometepe and Concepcion. The ferry ride made the island appear magical...two humungous volcanos that just emerged from the water forming this crazy island! We shared a shuttle, or rather the tiniest little transport "van" we'd been in thus far, and headed towards Merida, the town furthest away from the port in which we arrived. We had been told the journey would be  about 2 hours in total, but it didn't seem possible when almost 3/4 of ride had been completed in about 40 minutes - that was until we saw/felt the unevenness of the remaining unpaved...pathway? To call it a road would give you the wrong idea - you know the tracks they create for ATV tours or motocross, more like that. You can't help but giggle (pretty much the ENTIRE time) when you ride on something like that in a little 19-year-old, tin can of a vehicle, bouncing around uncontrollably while simultaneously being thrown from side to side. We almost got used to hearing the sound of the undercarriage scraping across the uneven, rock-ridden "road" below. Our lovely driver stopped to let us take some pictures of the beautiful landscape along the way and got us to our hostel in time to catch the sunset on the water! We settled in for the evening, attempted to buy dinner from their "supermarket," but realized that oversized machetes, second-hand clothing, and sandals that appear to have been attacked by the Bedazzler were not what we had in mind. On the walk back, Hannah nearly got clocked by a spastic mule who ran full speed from out of nowhere, causing a short bought of palpitations for the pair of us! We later learned that resident mule Fiona likes short sprints on the beach, scaring the crap out of visitors, and arriving uninvited to your dinner table - she takes to veggie burgers, rice, and chicken quite well.




Though not completely aware of what the island had to offer, we had planned to stay a few days. However, due to the ridiculous bug situation, our plans changed quickly. There were fly/gnats/ small bugs with an insane affinity to light bulbs EVERYWHERE!  We found it difficult to speak without some flying into your mouth or breathe through your nose without bringing a few along with the air! We wiped our beds free of dead bug carcasses but found them to be covered once again within 30 seconds. Though we are by no means high maintenance travelers, we had a few diva moments about the bug situation. Getting upset never resolves anything, so our solution was to bust out the sweet mosquito nets Hannah brought back with her! The ones we have must be for king-sized beds because when we finally figured out how to hang them, we felt like princesses in our own forts of bug protection. They work so well! In the morning, in one of my smart-ass moments, I said while grabbing the shorts sitting in the top of my bad, "hey, lemme just shake the dead carcasses out of my pants!" As I did, a gigantic 5-inch scorpion flew out of my shorts and hit the floor with a sound similar to what a set of acrylic nails tapping on a desk makes, and then scurried across the floor out of sight! Umm...AHHHH! Probably the only time my wiseassness has ever saved me from a potentially horrific situation! At that point, our casual preference of leaving the island quickly morphed into an urgent necessity - we did by way of a chicken bus that took 3 hours to traverse the same and only  "road." Though not exactly a cup of coffee, scorpions in the pants is definitely one way to jump start your day! 


From ferry dock, we took a crowded collectivo ride to San Juan Del Sur, your ultimate surfer's destination where almost every store rents boards and the minimarts are well stocked with board wax and Pringles. After exploring the town in the rain, we made dinner and took in a movie to help recover from a long travel day. In the morning, we shoveled in our free breakfast (heck yea!) and headed to Playa Remanso with the crew from Arenas Caliente in hopes of learning to surf! We were given rash guard shirts and boards resembling small kayaks that we would barely carry.they had us practice getting up onto the board while still on land, but only 3 or x4 times before we all piled into the water. Hannah and I were actually able to get up on our second or third attempts, but staying up is a different story. Due to my fabulous upper body weakness, I was unable to propel myself forward while getting to my feet, so the majority of my weight landed on the back end of my board, allowing the front end to shoot to the sky!  We each had a few long, solid runs while the instructors helped with wave selection and initial acceleration (aka, little push). We had always wondered what rash guard was and understood by minute 4 - the constant friction of your body rubbing against the top of the board actually causes this peticheael-looking rash on the skin having most contact with the boards. The most tiring and difficult aspect of surfing is fighting the large waves coming in that literally clean your clock each and every time. On average for the day, we probably aspirated 500ml and swallowed 1.5 liters of Pacific Ocean. Our success rate for catching waves drastically decreased when our instructors left after their two-hour guidance session. However, we discovered riding a wave into shore while lying prone on your board is equally fun as surfing, and much easier! Upon returning to San Juan, we took some smaller boards out to their beach to "practice"... apparently fiberglass boards are much more difficult to get up on due to their slipperiness. So, surf practice quickly became watch the sunset while using our boards as flotation devices! We felt total serenity amongst the pink, cotton candy-esque sky and setting sun, sound of crashing waves, smell of salty sand, and rocking sensation of the waves passing us that had not yet broken. Occasionally, we would "ride" belly down on a wave to shore, which ultimately became a spectacle for those on the beach - gringas bodyboarding on a surfboard.  We had a BLAST and laughed constantly, which was only ever a problem when we'd fight the waves and inevitably swallow/aspirate more salt water because it'd be difficult to take a breath between giggles! Though calling it a success would be an overstatement, now when people ask us "oh, do you surf?", we can reply , "we tried it once!" Hannah and I have so much more respect for the difficulty of the sport/hobby of surfing. Completely knackered, we laid low for the remainder of the evening. The entire next day was a catch-up day for errands, journaling, and exploring the whole town.






NOT us!


Over breakfast, we decided to head to Costa Rica! So let the travel day commence! New country! 

Leon and Granada

August 22nd - 26th

Our first Monday morning in Leon started with free pancakes, or as we called them "dense, rubber flatties" due to their lack of a crucial 'rising' ingredient like egg or yeast. But we loved them all the same...because who doesn't love free stuff? Marcus, Hannah, and I walked around the center of town, taking in the Spanish colonial style architecture of the main cathedral and the amazing doors on each of the house fronts we passed along the way. Side note, if you are ever dripping sweat while walking around Nicaragua (aka all the time), just pop yourself right on into a bank - the most air-conditioned place we have come across thus far in our travels! Kinda amazing! After a brief altercation with a money exchanger in the streets, we found a supermarket with the cheapest prices to date! We stocked up on the goods and made the decision to do the afternoon volcano-boarding session. 





Volcano-boarding you say? Heck yes! Hannah, myself, and another couple from DC piled into the back of a old-school Land Rover type of 4WD vehicle and headed down another fabulously bumpy road, this time sliding back and forth on the bench-like seating that ran parallel to the side panels of the car. During the drive and a few times after we parked, our guide Denilo tried to convince us to switch from the boards to the sit-down toboggans - he was successful with the other guy, but we cautiously stuck with our original decision. So we wedged our boards through the shoulder straps of our backpacks and headed up Volcan Cerro Negro, the second youngest volcano in Nicaragua and one of its most active, though the last significant eruption was in 1999. The actual ascent up the volcano wasn't bad at all, but it was difficult remembering that the boards (about the size of a snowboard but wooden with metal edges) strapped onto our backs gave us a wider turning radius than that which we were accustomed. Thus, there was lots of running into boulders, getting wedged between boulders, nearly falling as the wind caught our boards the wrong way and threw our balance off, hitting Hannah in the arm, back, and shoulder when we stopped for photos as I turned to tell her something, etc. There were gorgeous views of the linear arrangement of neighboring volcanoes and surrounding farmland that extended for miles, allowing us to see just how far the lava spread from the '99 eruption. Once at the top, the path itself looked identical to many sand dune tracks in the desert minus the black colored pumice stone-like volcanic rock bits. It never fails to amaze when you look at a crater, and this one was equally mesmerizing. After our customary jumping pictures, we started to suit up in our neon yellow and green onsie jumpers and elbow/knee/wrist guards...add a couple thick gardening gloves and chemistry goggles that you can't see anything out of and that is the equation for hotness. We looked...special. The 45-degree incline itself was quite intimidating, as was reminded to us during the whole 1.5-hour hike. So here we are, looking like ghostbusters with a wooden board strapped to our feet by old belts, staring down the volcano as the two riding the toboggans shot down and out of view in a matter of 20 seconds, and when we thought it couldn't get more ridiculous, a crowd of 30 or so locals had hiked up the volcano just to watch us crash and burn. Awesome. Hannah and I feel that somehow, and certainly not meaning to,  we become spectacles wherever we go. It was VERY difficult...in snowboarding, you simply glide across the snow; in volcano boarding, your board is constantly slowed by friction from the volcano, and you eventually sink into the softer ground beneath you. For a moment, the thought of never reaching the bottom before the approaching thunderstorm washed us down the volcano definitely crossed my mind. However, after what seemed like hours but was more like 12 minutes, we reached the safety of flatter ground. We looked like chimney sweeps once we finished...volcanic ash everywhere. Ps, aspirating volcanic ash is uncomfortable - I tried to keep my mouth closed on the way down, but sometimes you just get caught up in the moment and talk to yourself, like "holy crap, why didn't we just go on the toboggans" or "why do we ever think things like this are a good idea" or "I wonder how bad it would hurt if I just stopped, dropped, and rolled." 

Tuesday morning was fabulous and consisted of a birthday Skype session with my mom! Over the past few weeks, I have gotten a few people we've encountered along the way to participate in a birthday wishes video that I could send my mom in lieu of a tangible present...I think she got a kick out of it! The video had to better than her other present, a 5.8 earthquake in DC? Luckily, my parents are San Francisco veterans and handled this one with ease. Our new German friend Kristin, Hannah and I set out to explore the city for the rest of the day - visited the Ortiz-Gurdian Art Gallery, which had a good amount of classic paintings and a great collections of more progressive, modern art in an adjacent building. The multiple open courtyards throughout the exhibits helped to relax the atmosphere a bit and remind us where we were - can't say that you'd be able to find hundred-thousand dollar paintings in an open courtyard or in any non-temperature-controlled environment. After ducking into a supermarket to avoid another one of the awesome Nicaraguan thunderstorms and torrential downpours, we tried the spiky red fruit called rambutan, a close cousin of lychee, after instruction from a supermarket stocker who thought we were insane. Due to the fact we were finally in a city that has a cinema, we splurged and went to see "Super 8," which I found amusing for two reasons: superb acting and decent writing, and enjoying how Hannah and Kristin responded to the action/suspense parts of the movie...they couldn't sink further down into their seats if they tried. Hannah just shook her head into her hands when it was over. 





We woke up with another roommate, a smaller scorpion that was just hanging out in the corner. The young man running the hostel that morning seemed surprised but, like a rockstar, calmly killed it with the end of a broom. Before heading to Granada, we stopped off at a pharmacy to grab something and have decided that THIS is the place to come I'd you ever need anything...all antibiotics, no need for a prescription, and Haldol and Ativan just chilling in the glass shelves. Granada...we cannot quite figure you out. If the grunginess, city-feel of Xela got together with the colonial sophistication of Antigua on a Caribbean vacation and had a baby, it would be Granada. Great architecture, great old buildings, characteristic house fronts, great sense of community, fun cafes, safe...r, good artistic community, hippies and horse-drawn carriages. Once the sun starts to set, all the locals bring their chairs outside on the front stoops and just enjoy life with their families and neighbors - they would probably do it all day long if it weren't so hot during the day! Ended the night with a phone call to The G-Funk, the one and only Grandma Ro! The entire next day was dedicated to walking, exploring, and as Hannah and I discovered, stopping every 15 feet to take a picture of cool door, an old bike, or people riding bikes Nica style (one person on the bar in the middle who sometimes steers, one person on the seat pedaling...variations include up to 4 people). The Old Hospital is a photographer's dreamland - faded and chipping paint off destructed walls...great for photoshoots. Ironically, it could now be the perfect place for squatters and druggies. We spent a good deal of time wandering around with a security guard who decided to stick close to us and tell us about the hospital's history. Granada's old train station provides great pictures as well, as it still has classic engine and caboose cars of various types of train. We walked until the sunset - though there was a cinema, the one movie listed was "Wnny Poo," so we decided to pass on that. Free call home, perfect end to the day! 





We call this the "Tetanus Slide of Infectious Fun!"

On Friday, we shortly explored the Granada shore along Lago Nicaragua before spending the rainy afternoon indoors taking an art/mosaic class. Side note: watercolors and pastels are very difficult to work with...just saying. However, the light rain on the tin roof, open terrace, relaxing music, and doing something outside of our usual routine was refreshing! Towards the end of night, when relaxing, journaling, and reading, I tune out sometimes - one example: this girl next to me asked me "something something -iter?" "Am I a fighter?" Questioned look on her face, "something something -iter." " Am I a writer?" She shakes her head, holds a cigarette up to her mouth and fake smokes, "A lighter, el fuego, do you have one?" "Ohhhhhhh...no." These kind of interactions happen more often than I'd care to admit.






Ridin' Nica Style!

Next stop, Isla Ometepe! Colonial towns of Nicaragua, we like you lots! 

Roatan and the Journey to Leon

August 17th - 21st

Hannah and I headed to La Ceiba via a very secure, air-conditioned, comfortable bus shortly after our catch-up chat in the airport's food court. The most memorable part of La Ceiba was our taxi driver who can best be related to the shaved ice character on "Hawaii 5-0"...he was kinda classic! The other highlight was opening the package from my parents that Hannah brought with her - even though I knew exactly what was in it (as I has sent then a request list of things I needed), getting a package from home will ALWAYS be exciting!



In the morning, we took a ferry to Roatan in the Bay Islands and headed to the West End of the island. The weather was warm, the waters calm, and the vibe is probably always very relaxed - the perfect welcome back for Hannah! Roatan in a nutshell (initial thoughts/knowledge when arriving) = gorgeous waters, actual SAND on the beaches that was not black, 2nd largest reef system after the Great Barrier in Australia, lots of money (mainly into the boats but it is also a huge scuba-diving town...and that is just a pricey hobby), expensive (even for an island), primary language is English, filled with many foreigners (especially Australians) who traveled here years ago and never left! That afternoon, we actually went out on a boat with one of those Australian-turned-Roatanites to the Green Lighthouse reef to snorkel and explore the underwater world. Being exposed to that world is literally like "Finding Nemo" - it is a place I have such little knowledge about, so the entire experience is intriguingly disorienting...your mind nearly stops its current train of thoughts and all of your other senses become heightened. The serenity of it was only interrupted by the massive waves that deposited large amounts of saltwater into our snorkels and the jellyfish scattered throughout the area. At one point, our guide, who alerted us to cool things, pointed to a fish we had seen many times prior to that moment...I only realized he was pointing to a jellyfish right in front of us as I slow-motion Matrixed my hand about 2 inches above it! Yikes! The cadence of our exploring went from "la-di-da, fishy fishy" to "la-di-holy crap, what is that?" Nonetheless, we had a blast exploring the reef...and neither of us got stung! Baleadas (fluffy flour tortillas with beans, sour cream, and avocado) for dinner and lying on the docks to watch the stars for an hour rounded out the evening! In university, star-gazing was a pretty frequent occurrence, but it had been quite some time since I last focused all attention to the skies...I'm thankful we did that because it was relaxingly therapeutic to say the least!



You know those scooter scenes from "Dumb and Dumber?" Yeaaaa....that was 100% what we looked like all day Friday! We rented a scooter after passing a test...aka having a credit card, a license, and driving literally 10 feet down and back without crashing. At the final exchange, the man with a Caribbean accent handed us two bowl helmets and said, "now, they are expecting some bad weather later on so just be careful!" Filled with the pure joy and excitement of riding a scooter, we quickly reassured him and headed out to the explore the island! Driving with someone else behind you is nerve-wracking, and thus, you travel along at 10kph, take turns at a near standstill, and when feeling crazy you take it up to 15kph on the straight-aways. We mapped out a few stops along the road...post office, grocery store, and a dolphin museum. To our disappointment, a woman duped us into paying a $1 admission fee to a museum we thought was all about dolphins, but in reality was a museum of Roatan's history. Sadly, the obvious artifact descriptions, and by artifacts I mean pieces of ceramic bowls and a comb, made the exit sign one of the highlights. When we walked back outside, three huge displays about dolphins greeted us...shoot, a whole dollar, gone! Dork commentary: dolphins are AMAZING animals (based on what I learned from those displays)!



Later on, we sought refuge in a delicious bakery while a torrential downpour passed - there are worse places to be stuck than one that provides hot chocolate and croissants! When the rain died down to a tolerable level, we went back out on the road, Hannah now at the handlebars of "The Great Dilbertraus." Turns out both positions, driver and passenger, on a scooter are nerve-wracking! Though Hannah is a wonderful scooter-er, she only has two speeds: stopped and really fast, and relatively speaking, she will try to avoid the former at all costs. Luckily, Hannah handled the painful, stinging falling rain to the eyeballs quite well! I'd say on any given day, on a scale of 0 to ridiculous spectacle, Hannah and I usually live around 2 (mostly because we aren't Latino and Hannah has blue eyes). However, for a mental picture: two white girls in helmets that sit far back enough on their heads to be yamakas, soaking wet, faces twitching/heads retracting like turtles who've just tasted lemon for the first time with every heavy raindrop that was a direct hit to the eye (about every 2 seconds), rocking forward to "help" the scooter get up the hill, being honked at and passed by nearly every car on the island, and all with huge grins on their faces (unless the direct rain hits to the eyeball occurred every second, which prompted the same face a 3-year old kid would make if a sibling stole their new toy...yep, that revenge face). When the rain got really bad or if we needed a restroom, we would stop off - for us, it was a brand new 4-star resort very far off the main road and a huge supermarket. Either way, we'd walk in with our helmets still on, grins on our faces, making squishy noises with our soaking-wet sandals, and leaving a small linear trail of water (or small pool if we stood somewhere for longer than a few seconds) wherever we walked. We got lots of laughs both on and off the road - if we were pulled over taking pictures, some would slow down to make sure we weren't broken down, others (like the public transport buses) would slow down simply to take in the ridiculousness of the situation. Toward the end of the day, after passing all major "towns," we realized our tank was on E...actually, a little below the red E box. Luckily, there was one last gas station near the West End...which closed 15 minutes before we got there. We ended the scootering a bit early to conserve the little gas we might still have to reach the station in the morning. The remainder of the night was spent eating baleadas, journaling, and reading in new, dry clothing.





The next two days were traveling logistical nightmares. However, I had the disctinct honor of sharing a matrimonial suite for 300 lempiras with the one and only Hannah Smith...for 3.75 hours. In hindsight, I should have carried her across the threshold, but instead I carried the groceries and my baby bag. Regardless, the shorter version...Travel Day #1: check out from hostel, ferries currently not running to mainland, mission fill Dilbertraus: fail x1, barely make it to town (here is an idea, make the tank bigger than 1.27 gallons?), mission return Dilbertraus: fail x1.25 hours, must be on 2pm ferry and at 1:20 still no scooter rental guy, hand payment and keys to a neighbor who is on the phone with the owner, haul butt to docks, ROCKY ferry ride, research 1 hour on how to get to Nicaragua, have taxi driver tell us our plan sucks, sudden and drastic change in plans to take night bus to San Pedro Sula ("Fast & Furious 2" in Spanish, still awful), arrive at Honeymoon Suite around 10:30pm. Travel Day #2: 3:45am wake up call, reach bus terminal at 4:15am, told all tickets to Nicaragua on the 5am bus were sold out, new game plan to go through Tegucigalpa, wait outside other bus company's office until realizing the only day there were not buses was our day, try our best to avoid the loud, rude, and demanding Israeli girls who somehow kept following us, try not to hit anyone when girls push us out of the way at the ticket window to get theirs first, Zen breath, get tickets on the 6am, befriend a Honduran woman who kept losing important things (phone, passport, etc), reach last stop in Tegucigalpa and "Amazing Race" it to the bus terminal to beat out the other girls (PS, we would rock that show), wait x4 hours, Zen breath when Israeli girls were in our seats, loooong ride, take all bags with us to be searched at the border, wait 1 hour for liason to return our passports. The highlight was meeting Marcus, the cutest and kindest red-headed Scottish boy we've ever met! Also, our hostel had no dorm beds available so we had to share a private room price (more expensive)...until the hostel owner was showing us our "private bathroom" and couldn't get the door open, so he turned and said, "I will charge you dorm prices." Haha.

We look forward to exploring Leon and everything Nicaragua has in store for us! Miss you all back home, stay safe in the crazy string of natural disasters that seems to be attacking the east coast!

The Solo Road to Honduras

August 10th - 17th

The road alone is definitely different and I miss having Hannah to laugh with at ridiculous situations, as this week brought many. Have I become a dependent traveler? Yikes! However, when Hannah left El Salvador to head north, I headed west...far west. A trip to Mexico really should not be a spontaneous, unplanned one - did you know Mexico is quite large? Apparently, I did not. After a long, pseudo-air conditioned 12 hour ride, during which my time was passed having N/V/D, we reached the border! Cliff Notes version of my hours in Mexico: make the border patrol shake his head at me when I pronounced Oaxaca exactly as it is written and not how it is actually pronounced (wa-hawk-ah); get to Tapachula and discover it is another 12 hour, expensive bus ride; due to feeling like crap and not wanting to spend a half week's budget on a bus that would bring me exactly 12 hours further away from where I needed to be 6 days later, Guatemala became my fallback destination; a serious lack of budget choices brought me to an air conditioned hotel room with TV, where my amusement came from watching dubbed Hawaii 5-0; a near 2 hour excursion to find a post office and stamps became an epic fail, but with great chocolate chip ice cream; public bus it to the border, get DUPED by a pedi-cab for 5 pesos to go exactly 1.5 blocks, and be so annoyed that I refuse a ride that would have actually been amazing - turns out the bridge to the Guatemala side is about 1 km (and with 90-degree weather and turtling it, I would have paid); looking like a hot and sweaty mess, tears begin to form in the corners of my eyes when the border man tells me I must remain outside of the country for 72 hours before re-entering - probably because I looked like a homeless, frumpy girl who may have started crying in his office, he simply looked away while stamping the passport; another man who took pity drove me to the bus station as to avoid another 2km walk - ps, trying to support your own body weight on the back of a small moped is difficult by itself, but then add the turtle and you get a serious abdominal workout. Now back in Guatemala, a familiar stomping ground, Xela became the destination of choice. 

Friday was a simple travel day to Antigua and lots of errand-running upon arrival. Saturday was just one of those days where everything seems to be in balance and you become a sponge for experiences that occur during the day. The day began with a kilometer walk from where the bus dropped me off to my actual destination, Valhalla Macadamia Nut Farm. Being the only one of its kind in Guatemala, an early retirement couple from California brought and planted 350,000 macadamia nut trees that would provide the people of the area with cleaner air, vitamins and omega acids that they lacked from the current diet, and a more lucrative export to support the local economy. Smaaaarrrrtttt. And, you really haven't eaten a macadamia until you've had a fresh one...what a difference! Enjoyed their most popular breakfast (for good reason!) of macadamia nut and flour pancakes with macadamia butter, blackberry jam, and honey from bee on the premises. Had a great conversation with Jose, my personal tour guide for the morning, about the sustainability of this farm and its positive effects on him and the people of his community. Such a genuine man - he told me "life is about our interactions with others, not with money or other things; now I know you and you know us, our house is your house." Jose, you are SO wise!
When I arrived back to Antigua, I stumbled upon a benefit concert supporting a company called "Los Ninos de Bendicion," which funds the education of more than 15 children from a local pueblo called San Antonio Aguascalientes. Due to the fact that Los Ninos also educates the children about their Mayan heritage, the concert consisted of older children playing the instruments (drums and marimba) and about 10 younger children performing six Mayan folk dances in the traditional outfits of various regions of Guatemala. Umm, ADORABLE! Also, props to the organization who fosters the education of their ancestry. It provided me the first true time seeing children being children, and it truly was lovely to watch. After the concert, I had the opportunity to speak to this woman who is an inspiration in a way - later in life, she lived a dream she had always had, to live and work in another country. Now she lives in Antigua and teaches English in Guate after just packing up shop in the States! Amazing.

On the way to Rio Dulce, I met a Malaysian woman, Alice, who became my traveling partner for my few nights in the area. We stayed in a hostel that rested on stilts in the middle of the water, similar to buildings in Venice. There was a resident boa constrictor and a  river view restaurant a our hostel on the quiet side of the river. The other river bank had the main drag - cantinas, banks, restaurants, and travel agent companies . All in all, beautiful view to wake up to and a great introduction into the river towns of northeast Guatemala. A smooth, non-vomit-inducing lancha ride up the river brought us to Livingston, our first experience of Garifuna culture - the west African slaves on the boats from Europe settled in Roatan, east Belize, and here. They speak English like Rastafarians, in addition to speaking Spanish and their own language, and usually have a smile from ear to ear as they drum their hearts out to various Bob Marley classics. We stayed there a couple days and had a long walk along the trash-ridden beaches (as our Garifuna friend so accurately put it, "an absolute disgrace man") to Las Siete Altares, seven tiers of great emerald green pools separated by sloping rocks. At the top, there is (supposed to be) a waterfall...in our case, it was simply a larger, more dramatic rock that had a leaking problem. The weather is generally super hot and muggy all day long, gets less hot and humid starting around 6pm. The bugs are VORACIOUS! After the first night in Livingston, the worst I've had thus far, I awoke with large red bites all along the right side of my face, neck, and shoulder - the temperature underneath the sheets was enough to cause a syncopal episode, so I created a little breathing pocket for myself...of which every bug on the planet was informed. Leprosy...check. Malaria...highly probable. Making two children and three adults scream from disgust by 9am...check. Oh Livingston.

On Wednesday, I had some very important cargo to pick up in Honduras...HANNAH! Although we make great travel partners, our communication with each other when separated is pretty pathetic. Both of our families can attest to that, as they were the ones who inevitably informed me of the time and date of her arrival...at approximately 9:30pm the night before. We swear it is better when we are together! The path to get to Honduras is relatively straightforward, unless you miss the first boat for a town further up the river, like I did at 6:31am. It was pulling away as I ran with my huge bag onto the dock, so I waited for the nextf one that left an hour later. Heavy rains and thunderstorms rolled in as we pulled away from the docks...we were all soaking wet by the time the lancha broke down! Enter lancha #2 and an hour delay. After arriving at Puerto Barrios at 8:53am, the second collectivo bus driven by the slowest motor vehicle operator in Central America then took about an hour to go less than 20 kilometers. 
By the time I walked across the Honduran border and waited another 17 minutes for change from paying my entrance tax, it was 10:23! Little to no hope of arriving on time, and of course we hadn't discussed what to do if I wasn't there to meet her. Time was of the essence and I had to say something that would elicit some help..."I have a flight that departs at 12:30 from San Pedro!" It just popped out, and remarkably, was somewhat true? Following that statement, the 7 border patrolmen were out to find me a ride, after they asked me many questions about the current state my face was under. My savior came in the form of a young Guate native woman, her Italian friend, and a brand new Kia. After about 5 minutes of interrogation and car searching, the patrolmen smooth-talked their way into getting me a ride! Shout out to everyone involved in that epic event! Had she not given me a ride, I would have had to take 4 different chicken buses and a taxi only to arrive to the airport 2 hours after Hannah anticipated she'd leave for Ceiba. The ride itself was language heaven - she spoke Spanish very clearly and her friend spoke only Italian, so I could actually understand everything and even contribute conversation. Once in San Pedro Sula, she did get lost four different times, but we arrived at 12:41! I'm so grateful for her generosity and the massive detour she took from her hotel in order to drop me off at the airport.

Luckily, the airport itself probably consists of two or three gates, so I asked the closest human if a flight from the states had already arrived. As I walked away from him, I heard my name and whipped around to see a rejuvenated, glowing Hannah as we did the slow "Baywatch" run towards each other! Two things: when both parties of a hug are turtling it, the hug itself is somewhat awkward as it's difficult for your arms to even reach the other person; and it was more of a  Baywatch speed walk than a run. I'm so thankful and happy to have Hannah back so we can continue to laugh at the crazy situations that come our way! 

El Salvador

August 5th - 10th

Our trip to El Salvador from Antigua was pretty uneventful until we reached the border. So in theory, when one is traveling between countries, an entry and exit stamp for each country is required. On a rare and very unfortunate occasion, especially if traveling by boat or train, officials may forget to stamp your passport to show you entered the country. This is only a problem when you try to leave that country, much like a Canadian girl who was on our bus discovered. The charismatic, jovial driver who literally knew everyone we had passed on the journey (and we would learn everyone in El Salvador as well) schmoozed his (and her) way through the border by blending her in with the crowd who was leaving the window. In short, we started the journey into a new country by smuggling someone else illegally into El Salvador. Sweet. Pretty certain that wouldn't happen as easily in the States, just saying.

We headed to El Tunco, a very famous beach known internationally for its excellent surf. A couple of things about the "beaches" here: the little sand that is present mainly in the water is black and the layout area is its own sea of smooth, large rocks. Not much sandy area. However, the waves were powerful and one can see immediately why surfers love it. After a long swim/"stand there and try not to get pummeled by the waves or get caught in the undertow" session, we enjoyed the salty air smell, slight breeze, and island tunes from a beach side restaurant. We ordered sodas to officially celebrate our 1 month of traveling (we only realized when looking at our exit stamp from Guatemala that the day itself was the same as the entry stamp) and a banana split :) However, when the bill came, we were $0.05 short. Now, normally that isn't a huge deal, but we don't know how people here would respond. Hannah and I have always joked that I could sell the bag of lollipops that I purchased while in Xela if things got ugly. Well, luckily I had a few in my bag...and to the beaches I went calling out like a professional vendor. A nice family denied the lollipops but gave me the nickel! How amazingly generous these people are - not for the five cents - but we have repeatedly encountered so many people who go the extra length to help you, and from this end it is greatly appreciated! We took in some live music and poor food choices once the sun set. The place where we ate was basically run by children, as is a large majority of establishments. Sadly, kids do not have the opportunity to be kids because there simply is not time and families need all the help they can get just to survive. However, watching a child with heap tons of attitude put disrespectful or cheating people in their place is pretty amazing.

After waiting a couple hours, we finally found a ride to San Salvador, the connector city to Suchitoto. How cheap are we? We took an overcrowded, hot, "try to balance while turtling it and not fall over when the 12-year-old driver takes his tight corners" ride on a crosstown public bus because it was $0.20 and the taxis were only offering it for $4. Yep, that cheap. We made the connection and arrived at Suchitoto, a small, colonial, very artsy and progressive mountain town situated on Lake Suchitlan where the people are helpful, the food is delicious, and the doors are amazing. Hannah and I have a thing for bikes, trucks, doors, and windows. We spent the day getting lost and exploring - for the first time in a while, our shoulders were relaxed, our pace was leisurely, and we did not have the desire to look over our shoulders every block or so. The town itself is a higher class than we have been used to and often serves as a weekend getaway for many El Salvadorians - thus, Hannah and I were some of the more poorly dressed of the bunch! Now, that is not really new for me (in general), but it is the first time we actually recognized it! Due to the fact we had almost all of the day to explore and most things were open, we made a spontaneous decision at breakfast to move onto Santa Ana.

Standing up on a bus while turtling it is DIFFICULT. Add to the mix drivers who have the desire to speed but are given old school buses from America to work with and you have fast lane changes, unnecessary braking and accelerating, and close call passes into oncoming traffic. So, at one point on the bus ride back to San Salvador, the driver made a sharp right THROWING Hannah and I onto the people sitting on the left side of the bus. Apparently, Hannah fell slightly onto the oldest woman on the bus and a middle-aged woman who was diving to protect the elderly woman. Unfortunately, I did not see ANY of it because I too wiped out. The majority of my turtled weight fell on a young gentleman sitting in the aisle seat while my flailing upper body hit an elderly woman and my head being stopped by the window. Now, if that isn't bad enough, my legs totally came off the ground and as they did, the left hit a fellow stander in the knee and the right hit another (male) stander in the groin-ish area. As if the only two gringas basically in the town of Suchitoto (there was only one other white female that I saw) now with extremely large backpacks on trying to fit onto a local bus wasn't spectacle enough, that happened. Sheeeeooooot. I'm almost certain I've never apologized that much to anyone...about 20 times immediately after it happened and q2minutes for the duration of the ride. Every time I did, the older woman would wave her hand in a "forget about it" motion but then would bring it immediately up to her right shoulder and start rubbing it while wearing a sad face. YIKES! Today, our mission to help others has failed miserably, unless after that people were then thinking "well, at least we aren't those two." After that excitement, the connection to Santa Ana from San Salvador was boringly uneventful.

Santa Ana is a grid-format city that feels a lot like parts of Brooklyn, the ones with lots of abandoned car parts-like stores. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and hard to gauge whether this was the norm or simply because 1 in 30 stores is open on Sundays. When we found Casa Verde, there were angels singing in the near distance. Carlos, the lovely owner of this amazing hostel has literally thought of everything a traveler would need. Individual lock boxes, reading lights, and fans for each of the beds he had (all twin beds, no bunks), free internet, all the useful information one could need, laundry area, 3 lounge areas, a DVD selection for you to choose from, a kitchen to use, free clean water, and if you are lucky like we were, a free pasta dinner the first night! This places was SPOTLESS! We didn't even check for chinches! A diamond in the rough would be an understatement. A huge thanks to Carlos for such a lovely hostel/Santa Ana experience. Regrouped with an actual lunch that included a carrot-apple beverage in which those two foods and ice were the only ingredients. Phenomenal, I suggest everyone try it at home...unfortunately, if it is not good, it's probably operator error! Watched "Man Without Limits," a crazy movie about a drug manufactured to allow the use to access all parts of his/her brain and reach endless possibilities in life. A very interesting and thought-provoking movie that kinda left us not accessing any part of our brain :)

After a somewhat panicked rush to find a bus that would take us to the National Park of Volcanoes (Cerro Verde, Santa Ana, and Izalco), we arrived in time for the guided hikes. Due to the fact our main purpose of coming to Santa Ana was to see the turquoise pool (its color made by the combination of sulfur and the minerals within the land/crater) that lies within the Santa Ana crater, it was an obvious choice which hike to choose. There was a slight scare when we were told the hike to Santa Ana may not be possible, as they go on a majority-rules basis and no other person in the parking lot was hiking it. After seeing the disappointment on our faces, Elizabeth, who would become our personal guide, decided she could take us up! We first headed down Cerro Verde and then climbed Santa Ana with Elizabeth and our two personal armed security guards, Nelson and Eliseo (not sure about that last one). What an amazing experience to have with such a small group of people! The views of Izalco and Lago Santa Ana were phenomenal, and we arrived to the summit just before the clouds rolled in. Approaching the crater was so disorienting...you are almost hypnotized by the magnificence of the layered crater and the color of the mineral pool that lies within before you realize how close you are to the edge. It literally distracts you from reality for a moment! There were horizontally running sections of different colored rock throughout the depth of the crater, similar to the age rings of a tree - I've not ever seen so many different colors of rock from one structure! Once the clouds rolled in, it was just our outlines and the crater...a unique sensation for sure. Our strong guards helped us descend slightly to another solid rock for some amazing photos, which I will share as soon as this website allows me to upload images. The people we went with truly made that experience even better and more memorable, if that is possible. Additional plus, we spoke more Spanish in that four hour hike than we had the 4 days prior, or so it felt! After another lovely evening at Casa Verde, a friend of Carlos gave us a ride to the bus stop - one of the most honest and helpful people we have come across.

We returned to San Salvador the next day, solely because all international bus rides to Hannah's departure city originated there. To be fair, we did not explore much of San Salvador, but it does not seem to be a necessary stop on one's travel itinerary. Hannah and I stayed in a legitimate HOTEL with AIR CONDITIONING, towels, and the lot. A very energetic and kind man named Nelson drove us to the bus station to make reservations. Side note: When taking an international bus ride, bring your passport with you when making the reservation or buying the ticket. Needless to say, Nelson got a double fare, but charged us less because he is just that kind of guy! He was the highlight of San Salvador by far. We have his card in case anyone is headed this way - he will take care of you! I felt a little sad knowing Hannah and I would be headed separate ways in the morning, but I am excited she gets to see those she loves. Luckily, it is only one week before we reunite in Honduras. In the meantime, I made a very spontaneous decision to go to Mexico, possibly to catch up with Michelle, so let us see how this goes!

Lago de Atitlan y Chichicastenango

August 1st - 4th

We finally reached the LAKE!!!! It has been on the to-do list since we arrived and we can now cross it off :)

Let us just say, the first day was ROUGH! Hannah and I arrived to Santiago Atitlan after a long chicken bus ride, greeted by fireworks that were set off less than 5 feet away from us. Let's just say even if you know it is coming (and we had NONE whatsoever as we were distracted by a procession of masked individuals), it´s still cardiac arrhythmia-inducing. We took a psuedo-motorized boat ride to San Pedro, tuk-tuk'ed to the other barcadero, and rode another boat to San Marco, where we had planned to stay the night. Mind you, this is all while it was down-pouring - yay wet season. Once on the docks of San Marco, we were greeted/bombarded by small children claiming to be our tour guides who would escort us to our hostal for a small fee. On another day, it could have been endearing, but as my travel companions can attest to, things need to move quickly once my rucksack is on or you may see another side of me. After about 5 times of saying nicely "no gracias, no necisitamos un guia," I cracked a little when he asked for money (as we were turtleing it - large rucksack on the back, smaller daypack on the front, bags in each hand - WADING through muddy, puddle-laden pathways while fending off mosquitoes) - I may have said something to the effect of "FOR WHAT? Why would I give you money, you didn't do anything except walk slowly in front of us and continue to bother us when we told you we didn't need a guide!" Schwoops...I definitely got an F for "cultural sensitivity" at that moment. We got to the hostal, dripping all over the floor, and began our usual inspection for bedbugs. I cannot say for certain that there were bedbugs, but there were many visible bugs crawling on our sheets and pillowcases, thus making our decision to go to Panajachel that much easier. A very interesting Montrealite distracted us with conversation about the purity of walking as a main mode of transportation...yep...and then we found ourselves RUNNING to catch the last boat to Pana, set to leave 30 seconds after we began retracing our muddy steps. I honestly do feel that an obstacle course race while people are turtleing it should be a new Olympic sport, if for no other reason than the sheer entertainment it would provide viewers. So back to the dock, to wait for one last possible boat since we missed the one we were running to catch. Know what is awkward? Waiting in the rain while the boy you didn't give money to earlier talks about you with his fellow dock friends, while continuing to ask for American money now claiming it is for a school project. Yeaahhh...that went on for about 27 minutes and finally two boats showed up simultaneously. Being that the boat to Pana was full, we quickly adapted and decided San Pedro really had to be better than San Marco. While searching for a hostal once we arrived, we rounded a corner and quite literally saw a beacon of light. It was...drumroll...a HOTEL!!! Mainly due to our state of desparation, we asked how much it would be for a room - Q100, or the equivalent of about $13 in total. Mom and Dad, you would be soooo proud! Nahual Maya Hotel had clean and bug-free beds, our OWN bathroom, toilet paper, SOAP, our own TOWELS, a TV, and HOT WATER!!! We kinda felt like royalty. Basically, we ran out for our first real food of the trip (non-rice and bean dish) to get falafel and hummus, and returned immediately to spend the rest of the evening in our sweet HOTEL room!

Hannah and I awoke different people, bright-eyed, clean and ready to embrace San Pedro! A nice dose of fresh squeezed orange juice can't hurt as well! Sadly, our sweet hotel was only available for one night, so moving on was in our near future. Our main goal of the morning was to walk around, explore the art galleries and their beautiful central park (their fountain not only had actual water in it, but fish, turtles, and lobster as well), and find the post office. There were about 4 different sets of directions to the post office, the last two being from each of the post office's neighbors - I usually pride myself for having a pretty decent sense of direction but at times I just have to question that. Luckily, Hannah has an amazing sense of direction as well...that also had a glitch for about 8 minutes while trying to locate stamps. Then, KAYAKING ON THE LAKE!! We got in some kayaks made of a material that I can most closely parallel to paper-mache and headed out to explore the banks of pueblos on the water. Sitting on tranquil waters with a 360° panorama of volcanic and mountainous shores was nothing short of amazing. That may be one particular time where you catch yourself not thinking and just appreciating the moment. We returned to shore and headed back to get our bags from the hotel, thinking things really couldn't get better. The owner of the hotel then casually mentioned having an apartment with a lakeside view that he'd give to us at the same price for another night...umm, slight glance over at Hannah's smile growing, and YES PLEASE!! This day went down as "highly unlikely to happen again," but we loved every minute of it while it was happening. The rest of the evening consisted of organic hummus and cracker eating, journaling, staring at local fisherman as they practiced their art along the shoreline in front of us, and getting organic coffee (for Hannah) at a fair trade cafe. Over coffee/hot chocolate, we decided to celebrate our one month of traveling by heading to a new country! Who does that? Ultimately, it became a day that will hold a special place in our hearts for a while.

Great breakfast with FRUIT, yogurt, and granola, a long but happy goodbye to "our" lakeside apartment, and on the boat to Panajachel. So, the 10-15 passenger transport boats have an outboard motor, bleacher-like seats in the middle and a small bow for people to sit on (weather-permitting). Small confession - being someone very prone to seasickness, I may or may not have had to look up what the front of the boat is called on a "Boat Safety For Kids" website. Having a keen ability to pick the worst possible seats in whatever mode of transport we're on at the moment, we chose to sit on the bow to celebrate the sun's presence. The mistake was realized only about 5 minutes into the near 30-minute ride as we were thrown into the air and slammed down into the boat as the bow met the rather uncalm waters. Possible spinal compression? In all seriousness though, we were very thankful we didn't go overboard and I was equally thankful for my new focus on staying in the boat to distract me from my nausea :) The scenery was breath-taking...how are there rows of crops on a mountainside of 50°? Dork reference: It reminded me of what the Shire was described to be in Lord of the Rings. Arriving in Panajachel, we settled into another private room (we were on a roll) and headed out to explore. That evening, we met up with Kira, a friend we met in Antigua, and her friend who had come to visit and volunteer her vetranarian skillset to a non-profit that works with the homeless animal population. After a good dinner, we hung out at their apartment with Smokey, a mutt recovering from surgery after being hit by a car. If only we weren't traveling, and if they didn't cost money or require responsiblilty, I'd adopt that cute dog in a heartbeat.

On Thursday, we headed up to Chichicastenango for one of the largest markets in all of Guatemala. The ride up the mountain provided some spectacular views of the lake on one of the clearest days we'd seen yet. Chichi is overwhelming for about 27 seconds before you realize the majority of vendors are selling the same things. If you like table runners, blankets, placemats, miniatures of chicken buses, or machetes, this is the market for you! Unfortunately, we were stuck there until the bus left at 2pm, so we walked up and down every side street exploring the actual town of Chichi outside of the market limits. We stumbled across the cheapest supermarket to date! Our idea of exciting may be slightly different than yours, but we lived it UP - we both drank sodas to commemorate 31 days of travel! Some call us party animals, call us what you like. Another celebratory move was buying four "helado pops" (a little ice cream in between to round cookies, then dipped into chocolate in its entireity)...to make it less obvious that we were eating our way through Chichi, we made passes by the helado-pop guy, who probably recognized us by the second round. So two rules for Chichi: go on a chicken bus so you can leave when you feel like doing so AND don't feel bad about haggling. Here is one example during the day...
Hannah: "Cuanto cuesta?" (regarding a pair of earrings)
Vendor: "Q75"
Hannah: "Gracias" while walking away
Vendor: "Cual es su precio?"
Hannah: "Q20"
Vendor: "Q30"
Hannah: "Q25"
Vendor: "Esta bien!"
They overcharge expecting you to barter because the shop down the street sells the same for Q20. In less than about 10 seconds, the price was a third of its original. These guys are good! And the other tourists that fall for it and don't barter...thank you for supporting Chichi's economy. On the way out of town, a man on the street asked the driver if he was going to Antigua. Seeing as we were headed to Antigua, I waited until the man in the street has passed before confirming with the driver "we are going to Antigua, right?" A huge grin formed on his face as he gave an emphatical "Si!" Classic! The ride back to our home away from home Antigua allowed us to create a new game called "drive-by shootings," in which we snag the best possible photos of people on bikes, chicken buses, and daily life while going 50mph. A less "Grand Theft Auto" title for the game is in the works. In Antigua, we caught up with friends, family, and loved ones and spent the remainder of the evening decompressing in our own private dorm room!

On Friday, EL SALVADOR...and our first border crossing!!! Let's see how this goes! Miss and love everyone!