well what a trip, i suppose as this central america bit winds down we start to become a little more refelctive and the bottom line is that it has all been amazing!
last time i wrote we had just arrived in honduras, we didn´t stay very long, teguciagalpa, the capital, is literally the sketchiest place i think i have ever been (aside from outside the saigon train station but come on)... everything closed really early leaving the streets basically abandoned except for random drunk people, at one point we actually had to make the choice between walking past the empty parking lot where a group of guys was running around yelling or the same building where we had just walked past a drunk guy swinging a gun around, hmmmm,
we left the city and headed for a beach town, hoping to find a quiet spot to hang our hammocks, which we did, but the trees that we walked soooo far to get to were all prickly and then the hammock straps (yes multiple) broke and then, i must say it was after we managed to get in a nice dinner and build a fire, but then it starts thunder and lightening and raining like mad!
so we are on this beautiful little peninsula with no one around and no where to go and no hammocks but we managed remarkably well... we put a heat blanket on the sand with all our stuff and us on top and hung the shelter tarp thing we had to block the majority of the rain and used our rain jackets to cover the other side of our packs, so the rain wasn´t actually too much of an issue but a few hours after we fell asleep and the rain had stopped the animals had started...
sand fleas below, mosquitos above, crabs in the middle and stray dogs on the sides, yikes! that was a rough nights sleep and the hike out in the morning in insane heat and literally swarms of mosquitos was enough to make anyone in their right mind wonder what the hell they were doing, then the people were staring, the others were rude, there was trash everywhere and we had had enough of honduras so we headed to the border,
there were people yelling on all sides as soon as we got out of the bus, someone actually just took our bags and put them on his little tuk tuk which normally we wouldn´t take but hell we just wanted to get moving, we got ripped off by the border chick and then some guy helped us only to rip us off for what he helped us to get back 5 minutes earlier, whatever that border ended up costing us abnout $60 more than it needed to but at that point we were just happy to be on the other side
on to nicaragua, which by the way every america i have met since asks me if nicaragua is safe, nicaragua is awesome! yay nicaragua! after the few weeks we had had in our sometimes amazing sometimes questionable off the beaten track adventures we decided to get back on the beaten track and headed for granada, we found a nice western chilled out hostel, just what we needed. the city has some really cool architecture and it rained a lot, mostly, honestly, we just chilled in the hostel :) but they did have a ¨tourist center¨ that you had to pay to get into, there was a gate and a guard and it looked liek it might be disneyland inside but we didn´t find out...
next stop was lake nicaragau, so pretty this HUGE island in the middle of a massive lake with 2 giant volcanos on it, the ferry took ages and then the bus even longer down these crazy dirt roads and at the very end we got to our place, the rooms were decent, the food was ok and it rained for days but the company was something to write home about
we made such a nice group of people, swedish, irish, english, and us i guess, they had all just arrived and most met on the way and we decided that we weren´t gonna let the rain stop us, we were gonna go find this dam waterfall that was supposed to be so cool, well i can´t say we, if it was up to me we would have sat around all day and drank rum but hey, we put on our rain gear and set out for the hour and a half walk to get to the waterfall, once we got to the entrance it was still 2 k´s more to get up the trail so we decided to stop and have lunch, then we walked and walked and at this point we are all just drenched regardless of what kind of gear we were wearing and it was so hot i finally gave up and just had my bathing suit top on,
we heard rushing water and a couple of the guys took off running, we didn´t see them for about an hour, what we thought was the fall really wasn´t and they kept going but we thought we had missed them and part of the train was wasked out and blah blah we wandered around these trails for about 3 or 4 hours and never ever found the waterfall, eventually we had to give up cause it was going to get dark and the fog was already rolling in so we headed back to get some rum and that is what the next 100 pictures are of, a nice crowd and a lot of rum, one of the best nights since we have been traveling, thanks, you know who you are...
dennis and i took off soon after and headed for the beach in costa rica, hell of a trip for one day but 19 hours later we made it, whatever we meant by getting back on the beaten track we found it in montazuma, yes there is seriously a place with that name, and ironically enough it was the first place of our entire trip where they say you CAN drink the water
we met some more really nice people and found a waterfall and got the greatest little cabiny place in the trees where we could hear monkeys and see lizards and we went snorkeling and just had an all around beachy lovely time, it turns out the torrential rains at lake nicaragua wasn´t just rainy season kicking in thank god, it was a tropical storm and it had washed out bridges and done all sorts of damage apparently, crazy
it was time for me to head to san jose to catch my flight and dennis was going to stay with our new friends, LA & Kansas x2, fab people btw, but his sting ray sting from like a month before was all crazy looking and infected and we got scared he might need to get his foot cut off or something so he came back to san jose with me and dropped me at the airport asnd went to the hospital
turns out he is most likely going to be fine but we just got a 2nd round of antibiotics today and if they dont sort it by monday then he has to go back so the doctor can open it up, scary, go antibiotics!
anywho in the midst of this amazing central american adventure i just jetted off to nyc for the weekend, how crazy do i sound? my friend jen got married and i just coouldn´t miss it, so i spent a couple days there hanging out with some friends in connecticut and new york and it was tons of fun amd so cool to be able to say ¨see you in a month¨ but now i´m back in costa rica and honestly the whole flip flop is a bit weird...
we are headed to see a volcano tomorrow which just erupted and was on the news today and then it´s just a couple more weeks...panama and cuba and then back to the states, i can´t beleive it has been so long and i can´t believe it is winding down and pretty much life is great :)
