EL Salvador

We enjoyed our trip to El Salvador. We had great tour guides, our friend Laura Molina-Zedan and her awesome family! They are from San Salvador and Laura's son, Victor, was in my class this past year...as well as two years ago when he was in pre-K. I had told Victor all year that I was going to come visit him, and I think he was quite surprised when I actually showed up! Victor is the kiddo in the middle of the photo wearing the Hollister t-shirt. We had the best hosts ever! It was very interesting to hear the history of the 80's during the Civil War from the point of view of someone who experienced it first hand! The entire experience was incredible!

Each day we went to a new location. We spent the first day in San Salvador and we climbed the volcano in the city the second day (in a car :) and the third day we went to Suchitoto, a great artsy town with a great big lake. Excellent views from La Posada Restaurant. Above we are in the main square of Suchitoto. There were many cute shops around the square and a nice church. We ate delicious coconut ice cream while we were there....a great treat as it was the first really warm day we had experienced in El Salvador.






I think my favorite town that we went to was called Ataco. It had a very small paragraph in the Rough Guide and I think it deserved much more! While Suchitoto was neat and interesting, Ataco was hopping and really full of life and amazing art! As seen in the photo, the town was covered in these beautiful murals. I was standing next to the artist while I was looking at the mural on this building and I said, "I wonder who painted this, it is beautiful!" and she said, " I am the painter". She had many large colorful paintings and sculptures for sale, but alas, a 3x5 painting or a 30 pound sculpture is not very fun to backpack with! I will just have to live with the memory!

Lastly, we went to Costa del Sol. We had gone out the dinner in the coastal area of La Libertad a few days prior....with the perfect weather. Laura's family has a beach house in the Costa del Sol area. We had the pleasure of spending the evening there. Lying on the beach, swimming in the warmest Pacific Ocean water I have experienced to date and just relaxing was what the doctor ordered...especially since we were going to spend the next 3 days traveling on bus and/or plane. This is the dress I bought when I was there! So many stories, but my head just isn't in it to type it all.

We are home now and we are already planning our next trip. Where to go? I am really missing SE Asia as I just looked at my friend, Krista's pics. Perhaps back to Thailand to visit the western beaches (which I did not see the first time) and Vietnam (my dream for almost 30 years!) Thanks for reading. Back to the classroom in under a week! Summer is almost over :(

Nica road trip

Granada, Masaya, Managua, Leon and back. We were getting ansy in our little beach town. We decided to recruit some friends for our road trip and rent a car to have a little more freedom. We recruited Nigel from Australia. He was a complete trooper to hang with these 3 crazy Americanos! Amy had a way of making him do the oddest hings for her photos, a fact that I did not discover until I saw here photos upon our return! I was there, however, when we made Nigel stand in a chair in the bed to try to reach the ceiling fan. We held the chair with all of our might, but the bed was not much a a stable place to set the chair....let's just say we laughed a lot that night!! That was Granada after happy hour! Our first stop after a quick stop in Rivas was Granada. It is a very different town for Nicaragua. It is a colonial town and a very pretty one at that. It was nice for about 2 hours when we arrived, but we soon had to take sanctuary in the local cathedral. There was a tower to climb, so we went up for the view of the entire city. It was very nice. Something to mention...these countries, for some reason, like to tile their sidewalks with VERY slippery tiles. I nearly kill myself on them every time it rains and this day was no exception. It does not matter how careful I am....I still slip.

I love the architecture in Nicaragua. They love to paint things in the most vibrant colors. Churches are almost always bright yellow! It is an amazing sight against the blue sky. Alas, today it was raining. Still not too bad on the eyes. There was a tour guide in this church that reminded of Pedro, as in "Vote for Pedro". We was very informative, but I was waiting for him the entire time to say, "If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true".

The next evening we visited Laguna de Apoyo. We had to take our little Toyota 4-wheeling to get there....don't tell Alamo. I am sure there was some damage to the shocks and possible the axle. It was scary....then funny. The Laguna de Apoyo is a large and very deep crater lake. It is 600 m deep. The water is crystal clear and very warm. We stayed at the Monkey Hut which had many toys to play with. We went tubing and then we went kayaking around the lake. It was very nice. But then is was time to go to Masaya, a small cultural town which is famous for its art markets. We were VERY tired and cranky on this day and we found it difficult to maneuver around this busy and hot town. We expected it to be smaller so that we could find everything faster. Eventually we found the market, but we also found it to be less authentic than we expected. After a quick twirl around the market, finding many interesting things, such as a rooster basket, we decided to go to the Volcano de Masaya instead. This was like driving to the moon. It was as short drive, but the terrain changed so quickly. The top warned to stay only 20 minutes. After 20 minutes of breathing in the sulphur, I understood why. We were also instructed to park facing away from the crater so if it blew, we could get out more quickly. NICE!

Our last stop was in Leon. There were two roads to Leon. The north road and the south road. Once we navigated our way through Managua....and after getting our windows washed 4 x while waiting at intersections...we found the southern route. We had pulled over to make sure we were on the correct road (as there are NO roadsigns in Nica) and we were told we were correct. Thing that sucks was that there a road a mile north that was paved all the way to Leon...we were on the road that was NOT paved and had the most tremendous potholes you have ever seen!It took us an extra hour to get to Leon. We arrived just before dark. We found a place to stay and we found Pupusas for dinner. We wandered around the park at night and saw some of the famous murals that are all over Leon. We had an early night as we were exhausted. When we woke up, we had a quick tour of the city, again taking sanctuary in a cathedral from the downpour. Leon has the largest cathedral in all of Central America. When we left the cathedral, the siren in the central park went off. This siren goes off at 7am and Noon. We knew then that is was noon, and we needed to get the car back to San Juan by 5pm. We had to GO! So that we did. We drove as fast as we could back to the beach. We were in Rivas by 4:15. We were dropping Nigel off at the Ometepe ferry. Then we drove the 30 minute back to San Juan, only to get stuck in an FSLN parade for the Holiday weekend where they celebrate the revolution. We got back at 5:15, ran into the rental place and were then told.....it didn't need to be back until the morning! @$#$%!!!! We could have stayed in Leon!!! Dang!! Oh well! The next 4 days in San Juan consisted of 5pm and 4am parades to celebrate the holiday and m-80's going off all day to remind the people of the revolution. I was glad when Sunday came, because everyone was tired of partying by then and the town was quiet once again!

We are now in San Salvador, El Salvador....which I will post in the coming days :)

Home Sweet Home

Casa Azul: Home Sweet Home!












La Playa en San Juan del Sur

We have finally arrived in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. We left the beach in CR around noon and had a friend drive us to the border. It is MUCH easier to cross the border by foot than to take the Nica or Tica Bus. When you take the bus they make everyone get off at the one border, collect everyone's passports and then reappear in several HOURS! Meanwhile you sit there and contemplate what to do if you never see your passport again...is it possible to live on the border in no mans land?? But then they finally come back, return your passport, you get back on the bus and drive 100 yards, only to do it all over again at the entering border. HOURS!!!!!!!!! On foot it takes 20 minutes!! That's it!!!! So we got dropped off at the CR border, checked out of the country, walked the 1/4 mile to the Nica side and checked out (with minimal harrassment) and then jumped in a $20 taxi to San Juan del Sur. When we arrived it was POURING rain. We did not want to walk around looking for an apartment that night, so we got a room (with the help of Amy's Nicaraguan family) and went to sleep. In the morning we dropped Elyza off at her surfing lesson and spent the morning and afternoon looking for a house. AND we finally found one. We stayed one night in the Casa Verde above and we are moving into the Casa Azul today. It is a three-bedroom house with a bathroom and laundry. We have a balcony and a view of the ocean. Last evening we sat on the balcony and watched the Nica's play a great game of futbol while drinking our Nica beer. Today it is raining again (a big surprise for the rainy season) and we are headed to the beach in an hour for surfing...the rain should stop by then. Elyza and I are taking Spanish classes together on the beach. It is $8/hour for the Spanish class, so we will take a 2 hour class each day until we leave, which should help tremendously with my confidence. JUST when I thought I was done doing homework for awhile! I will post inside home pics when we get them. Surfs up....gotta go!

Tamagringo

Tamarindo...otherwise known as Tamagringo to the locals. We are here for 2 days and so far the surf has been rough. I have a big scrape on my back to prove it!! The waves are strong due to storms and the area has many rocks under the water that make it difficult to wade without tripping over something. This is very much of a tourist town. The men believe that the women would all like to come home with them! Last evening we went out to dinner and a restaurant that we love! Rice, beans, salad with lime, fried bananas (or babana's when you read the menu) and an amazing piece of freshly caught fish!! It is almost as macrobiotic as you can get down here!! YUM...I am craving lunch as I type this!!

Later in the evening, Amy and I went out and had drinks and thought we would dance, but it was not salsa night....it was club music night. Not so much our style. We swung by the 4th of July celebration where they held a hot dog eating contest and they had beer pong set up...again, not so much our style. I know it was America's birthday yesterday, but we came down here for Central American culture, NOT a hot dog eating contest!

This area seems to have many more bird species than I saw in Monteverde...and much easier to spot. We have many orange-chinned parakeets and well as larger parrots. Black vultures, Magnificent Frigate-Birds, Ruddy Turnstones, Terns, Pelicans, Motmots. OK....off to the beach!! Sun is finally out!

Brrrrr.....Monteverde

Just when I thought I wouldn't be wearing my jeans...I haven't taken them off since I got here. The plane was FREEZING, the bus ride to Monteverde was FREEZING and the weather here is always in the clouds, hence, the cloud forest. Yesterday we took a walk around the preserve to see the animals. Perhaps from my experiences in Asia, I was under the impression that monkey's would be leaping out of the forest onto my backpack...a common event in Sumatra and Bali...but alas we did not see a single monkey, or any other mammal for that matter. We saw some interesting birds, but the girls I walked with did not have the patience to sit and listen to the different birds. I sat and watched the hummingbirds for a bit and we saw many, many glass winged butterflies. Very cool. A nice morning. We came back into Santa Elana and had a relaxed afternoon. In the evening we went dancing with Evan, our new friend. He was an EXCELLENT salsa dancer and a great lead for me as I have absolutely NO skills in the dancing department! He made me feel like a superstar. Sorry fans....no video of this event!! haha!! We are now waiting to catch our bus to the beach as Amy has had enough of the cool air. We are ready to put on our bikinis and sundresses for the remainder of the trip. Hasta Luego Monteverde.

All packed and ready to go-Costa Rica, here I come!

I have packed my bag and I am ready to go. I have few clothes and more books....books I can read and dump!! SO it will be in my best interest to read quickly so my bag can lose some weight. I am pretty impressed at the fact that I brought so few clothes. Kinda stinks to have to bring a pair or good hiking shoes that will only be worn a handful of times on the trip, but alas, we must all have good walking shoes! Decided to leave the salsa dancing shoes at home, one must pick and choose the necessities when you live out of a backpack for a month! So now I wait, drinking my last Sierra Nevada, thinking of jumping on my bike for a twirl around town to get some nervous flying energy out. Tomorrow morning at 8:25 I have a reservation for a ride from Alajuela (20 minutes west of San Jose) to Monteverde to meet Amy, Elyza and Amy's mama at the Pension El Tucan. Amy and Elyza would like to got for a horseback ride and I think I will be looking through my binoculars for little birdies! We may head to Arenal Volcano after that and then back to Liberia to send Amy's mom back to Denver. We will then head to a rented house outside of Montezuma to visit my friend Scott and his three awesome boys!! I look forward to seeing them in CR. From there we will return to San Juan Del Sur for a day or so and then........the world is our oyster. There is a good chance we may end up back on Ometepe to complete the hiking trip we failed to complete over Christmas due to Amy's feigned and then real illness! That is week one in a nutshell.

NJ/NY/MI and on my way to CR

The ladies at Columbus Circle

OK.....Just spent my 10 days in NY/NJ/MI. A lovely and relaxing 10 days before I had to return to CO only to find out that I had to completely rewrite my master's paper!! Needless-to-say, my computer and I have been besties at the coffee shop for the past few days. I think....I THINK...I will be done today. Then on Thursday, red-eye to Costa Rica and immediate transfer to Monteverde to meet Amy, Elyza and Amy's mom. I suspect on day one I will test out a hammock and rest up since I DO NOT sleep on airplanes. I will be tired when I arrive. I hope to be able to blog regularly while away, but Nica does not have the speediest internet connections, so we will see. Until then.....

JB catches a fish in Carpenter Lake