It's been a long time since I last wrote, and no one wants to read an epic essay, so I will try to be as entertaining and brief as possible (both quite feats for me to achieve). It wil get more interesting towards the end as I remember more! I have discovered an alter-ego in the past month.. his name is Felix and he is a 9 year old boy who enjoys climbing trees, lightning, teasing crabs and getting into lots of scrapes. Every time a new and unexplained bruise emerges or I get really excited about something juvenile Claire teases me for being Felix. Still cool.
NICARAGUA:
Granada: One of the most beautiful cities so far.. picturesquely dilapidated churches and old buildings, communal central parks full of playing children and women selling fruit juice, and a coincidental bumping into three separate groups of people including the Brazilian guys, our French friend Ornella and an Austrian girl we met in the jungle. We spent our days exploring the markets and nearby towns, and our nights getting drunk and swinging in hammocks. Good times.
Corn Islands: We persuaded Ornella to come with us and flew in another teeny tiny plane to the Corn Islands, another collection of impossibly beautiful Caribbean islands with incredible snorkelling and pristine waters. Sigh. Life is hard. Ate lots of fish, swung in hammocks, explored the island, drank rum on the beach, watched crabs scuttling around digging holes and saw more turtles whilst snorkelling. No sharks yet.
Isla de Omotepe: We spent a night on this island which is two volcanoes joined together.. very beautiful but hot and full of midges. There are sharks in the murky waters (which someone told me as we were swimming late at night.. not the best time to be told). We got a ferry overnight to Costa Rica; they overcompensate for the heat by air conditioning transportation to the max, so whilst I snuggled up in my sleeping bag on the seat/bench that served for a bed Claire alternately froze in the cabin or boiled on deck. Lesson learned!
COSTA RICA:
Tortuguero: Got a million buses and boats to this isolated nature-watching spot.. made a friend called Bony who took us to see monkeys, lizards and crocodiles (Felix was loving it) and hung out in the 'disco' fending off locals in the evening until it was time for our night-time turtle-watching trip in which we saw no turtles. The less we say about that the better, we were not impressed and very tired the next day!
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca: We were moving incredibly fast to meet the boys in Panama so we spent a night in hammocks in this lovely coastal party town. Played ring of fire with British girls and skinny dipped in the sea.. still on course to complete our mission of doing it in every Central American country!
PANAMA:
Bocas del Toro: Another group of Caribbean islands. (Can you tell I'm rushing this?!) We went to a gorgeous butterfly sanctuary and a beach full of tiny poisonous red frogs, and were ferried everywhere by water taxi. Hired bikes to explore the island and completed our skinny dipping mission. Had a big night out in a reggae bar and woke up hanging for our journey to Panama City..
Panama City: Buses, boats, taxis and 16 hours later and we arrived in Panama City and met the boys. Phew! It was an exhausting couple of weeks but now we can be lazy in Columbia.
