Nicarauga

NICARAGUA 

December 17th- 22nd

Nicaragua started off crazy!!! We took a 2 hour bus ride from Liberia, Costa Rica to the border of Nicaragua. After we went through border control and all that fun stuff, there was a gate that we had to go through in order to be "in" Nicaragua and where we had to catch a ride to our next destination. As we opened the gate and stepped onto the other side we were swarmed with taxi drivers and people trying to inform us of different ways we could get to different places. At first we felt like Hollywood stars with the paparazzi all around....that quickly faded as they persisted, all 30 of them, that we go with them!! It got so bad that Shauna and I were separated by the mob. I was getting pretty annoyed at this point and I could see that they were touching Shauna and trying to get her attention and I had, had it at that point so I told them all to beat it and leave us alone, which didn't work, but it at least made them leave Shauna alone. We finally made arrangements with one of these maniacs to take us where we wanted to go.

San Juan Del Sur

We had originally only planned to stay in Nicaragua for 2 days, more of just a passing through as we went to EL Salvador, but we met of couple from the U.S. that told us we needed to visit San Juan Del Sur and Ometepe Island because they were amazing! So we decided to check them out. The first was San Juan del Sur, which is just a little surfing town right by the border of Costa Rica. We stayed in a hostel that was less than 5 minutes away from the beach. While there, we saw a local baseball game that was played on the beach, amazing sunsets, we also went to a karaoke bar, and last but not least, there were parades that started at 3am. We loved San Juan Del Sur and stayed there for two days.

Locals playin baseball on the beach. It looks like just a couple of people but...

the whole town came out!

The kids played too! It was fun to see a small town come together. Everyday we were there, there was a big game!

You see people walking around balancing stuff on their heads all the time :) I learned young (probably from the Frog Prince that that is a true sign of a princess! :) Wish I could do that!

In this fun town, we mostly spent the day on the beach swimming, relaxing, people watching, and enjoying the beautiful sunset... check these pics out! We got a little photo happy, who wouldn't with a view like that!!!

OMETEPE ISLAND

Our next stop was Ometepe Island. This is an island in the middle of the Nicaraguan Lake. It has two huge volcanoes on it along with a few villages. We took an hour long fairy to the island and then an hour taxi to a little organic coffee plantation called Finca Magdalena which was right by the smaller of the two volcanoes, called Maderas. We met a couple people there that we ended up hanging out with throughout the rest of Nicaragua: Jason, from Australia, Zak from Canada and Kayla, from Chicago, who is actually a producer for Oprah :) Once again we were in great company while having the time of our lives. Finca Magdalena was a great cheap place to stay. The food was great and not expensive at all, they had things like french toast and excellent spaghetti for dinner. It was so cheap, sometimes we'd buy 2-3 meals.

Our luxurious quarters. Believe it or not we upgraded from a pull bed.

Organic Coffee Beans drying in the sun

And I made another friend. :)

Wild pigs just roam around the town

dirt roads and random shops are along the roads

The first night there we went with our friend Jason to the water hole, which was beautiful. It was a natural pool with crystal clear water. We met a wonderful family, that actually lived there. We played with their kids and they fed us oranges.

The next day we hiked the Maderas volcano. The only thing that we knew about it was what Kayla had told us the day before, which was that it was muddy and took 8 hours to get to the top and back. She was right!!! It was super muddy and in fact did take 8 hours to get to the top and back. It was a hike that we will never forget of course coming down is always better then going up!!! It was sure beautiful though. See for yourself!
Our hike up Maderas was one of the toughest hikes that we have ever done. The trail was super muddy and slippery most of the way up and down. Shauna got blisters on her feet so she put her flip flops on, which just so happened to be mine. ( I grabbed the wrong pair...oops) So those flip flops didn't work out so she ended up going barefoot for most the way up. She finally put her shoes on because it was so slippery and her feet were killing her. Our friend Jason also went most of the hike barefoot and in his flip flops. His motives were a little different. He only had one pair of shoes that were new and still clean and he didn't want them to get them dirty so he went the first 7 hours without shoes or in his flip flops then he slipped and banged his head really hard. So he decided to put his shoes on. He did manage to make it down without getting his shoes too muddy :) He was pretty happy to claim that he had "the cleanest shoes to make it off Maderas!" :)

Jason, Zak, Me and Matt

View of the other volcano

Definitely "cleanest shoes to ever come off Maderas"

Talk about gorgeous! I didn't want to add a caption to each picture cause you can only say "beautiful in so many ways! :) Plus you can clearly see how cool! We did not expect Nicaragua to be this gorgeous! We loved it!

So then we had to leave...We all left together to go to Granada, which is one of the most famous colonial cities in all of Central America. We spent the day exploring the buildings, churches, eating popsicles and enjoying our last bit of time together in Nicaragua.

Bus stop, we took a 2 hour chicken bus there. It was so hot and crowded. Matt said we couldn't take the chicken bus anymore. He stood the whole time cause he was a gentleman and gave his seat up every time he had the opportunity to sit down! What a guy huh? That's why I love him!

Shops in Granada

Here is the old Colonial town of Granada - very cool!

We saw a funeral...

and a wedding, well at least the pics of the wedding.

Check out this church, lovely!

Matt, Kayla, Zak

We would have liked to stay longer in Granada but we had to get going to San Salvador. So we decided to take the bus at 3am from Managua to San Salvador. We took a chicken bus to Managua and got to the bus station, where we figured we could wait til 3 for the bus but they shut down at 1am. Managua is supposedly one of the most dangerous cities of all so Matt got out his brass knuckles, that Kyle let us borrow, and we went walking down the road to look for a hotel. An English speaking guy came up and told us that he wanted to walk with us so that we would be safe while we found a place to stay. He was really nice and pointed out that there were several people around the city that will rob us at gun point. We actually saw one in a back ally sitting in his truck just staring at us. I'm grateful for our "guardian angel" that showed up just in time!

Costa Rica

Costa Rica

 December 11th - 17th

San Jose

We arrived in San Jose after a long 18 hour bus ride from Panama City. We didn't have a thing planned but our taxi driver helped us find a nice place to stay. Then at our hostel they gave us maps and tons of ideas of what to do. We spent our days in San Jose doing a walking tour through the city. One of the most popular things are the outdoor markets. In the markets they also have people doing different things for money, like playing music, or painting faces, or some people were just dressed up to make all the children happy. We shopped a little bit and got a good feel for the way of life in San Jose. We really enjoyed it! We also lucked out because there is a parade once a year and we were there for it! We went with some friends that we made at the hostel. It was a blast!

Bus Ride! :)

Downtown Market, there are streets and streets of this!

Our Hostel

Parade

New friends for the night :)

Our 5 day tour through Costa Rica

We really were in the right place at the right time because we made friends with a fun couple from Canada that were backpacking from Panama to Honduras. We knew we would get along great because their names were ironically the same as my grandparents: Margaret and Ken. We hit it off and nicknamed them Skip and Peggy, the names my grandparents actually go by. Little did we know that we would be spending the next week with them. We split the price of a rental car with them and drove all over Costa Rica. We had a great time with these guys!

On the road 

We stopped and stayed in La Fortuna and went to the nearby Lake Arenal and also the Arenal Volcano.

Hostel, where we stayed, it was only a couple bucks :)

Scenes of La Fortuna

We were also lucky enough to go to the local high school's Christmas band concert! 

We also visited Monteverde and did the canopy tour with Xtremo tours. That was definitely one of the funnest things that we did our whole trip! Like a dream!

We went to so many beautiful beaches! We stayed at Samara beach for a couple days and just relaxed! We also stopped at some of the more popular beaches as we headed north namely Coco beach, and Panama beach.

SAMARA BEACH

Relaxin on the beach

We saw a bunch of baby sea turtles at Samara! We saw the first at night and me and this local boy made sure it got to the ocean. And then the next day there were like 5 baby sea turtles that hatched and were making their way to the water. We made sure they were safe from all the stray dogs and other animals that could have snatched them up. They are soooo cute! I just wanted to take one home :)

COCO BEACH

PANAMA BEACH

We Also saw a bunch of wildlife as we were driving. One day there was a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. We pulled over and noticed that there was some sort of animal crawling soo slow across the road. Of course! A sloth!!! We have never seen a animal move so slow! We were able to see him up close and take tons of pictures. SWEET!!! It was great to have a car because we would see wild life on the side of the road or in the trees and we stopped to take a look. 

 We saw over 100 monkeys, about 5 Coatis (the Central American version of our Raccoon), Humming Birds, Iguanas, Lizards...etc. It was amazing.

Plus we got to stop and take pictures of some cool plants and the beautiful sunsets!

Costa Rica is one of THE most BEAUTIFUL places in the world! Talk about blessed to have had no plans and then to have gotten to go, do and see all that we did! At this point we're thinking "what a life!" :) And our trip isn't even over yet! Next stop...NICARAGUA.