Butterflies, cows, and adrenaline in Monteverde

 The town of Monteverde is in the mountains of Costa Rica, and it is so windy here! No more sunny beaches, instead I'm wearing pants and long sleeves to try to stay warm, although it is still beautiful here, and green! We started the day off yesterday with a tour of a butterfly garden. It was amazing to learn more about these little creatures and I was mesmerized by their beauty. There were so many different kinds to be seen, and so many different colors.
After this, we took a tour of a dairy farm. I don't think they do this tour very often, because the tour guide didn't seem like he knew what to talk about, but it was still a lot of fun! I never milked a cow before, and that was definitely unique! I'm no where as good as the farm boys, but I was able to get the technique down a little bit. I was surprised at how much it tired out my forearms, it must have been quite a work out when they used to do it all by hand! We even got to drink some fresh milk, with a little bit of chocolate mixed in. It was surprisingly delicious! and still warm. After this I got to feed a calf, and these guys were surprisingly strong! The calves don't have teeth, so if you stick your hand out they'll suck on it trying to get milk. It was the weirdest sensation! The roofs of their mouths are pretty rough though, so it wasn't too pleasant. Once they started though they didn't want to stop! They kept coming after us trying to suck on our hands, one of them even tried to ram Nate into compliance. It was definitely a unique experience.

Today was more of an adrenaline filled day. We woke up early and took a repelling tour. Not just regular repelling though, it was more exciting than that! We repelled down 6 waterfalls (Ok, they were all pretty short and they weren't gushing water, but it was still scary for me!). Most were very short, but the longest one was 40m. Even the small ones made me nervous, but the big one was scary. The rocks are a little slippery, and it's sometimes difficult to figure out where to put your feet because it is so uneven. Going down the tall waterfall was definitely a challenge for me, but I'm glad we did it, it was a lot of fun! The water was freezing and we got soaked! When you reach the bottom of the waterfall you have to jump in, and the water was between knee and waist deep usually. We literally repelled down the waterfall though, not on the side of it, so we had water hitting our legs and sometimes even pelting us in the face! On the last waterfall the  repel rope didn't reach all the way down, so we were supposed to jump the few remaining feet into the water. When I went to jump though the guide who was holding a second repel rope (for safety!) didn't let go of his, so I only dropped a few inches and then started swinging back into the rock. Then he decided to let go, plunging me into the water unexpectedly and giving my a shot of water up my nose to the brain! Oh well, still had fun even though freezing and full of water!

After all this, Nate ended the day bungee jumping!! What a crazy guy. The jump was 490 ft (yikes!) I got nervous just watching. That tiny spec on the bottom is Nate!

Mal Pais, Costa Rica

Just beach and forest!

From Liberia, we spent a whole day traveling down the Nicoya peninsula to get to Mal Pais/Santa Teresa. We took buses, a cab, and were stuck in one town for three hours before making it to town around 9 pm. Santa Teresa is a great little surfer town, and is utterly breathtaking. The beach is void of any buildings, all you can see when on the beach is the sand, the ocean, and trees. The roads aren't paved at all, so we were constantly breathing in dust when walking around town. The town has its own little culture, being filled with tourists and foreigners who are there to surf. For example, the owner of our hostel was German, servers at the restaurants were Italian or Isreali, and my yoga teacher was from Australia. There were some locals around of course and we practiced some Spanish, but mainly English was spoken everywhere. We rented surf boards and attempted to surf (Nate faring much better than I did!) It was fun, but I mainly felt beat up by the waves! I did enjoy swimming though, the water was so warm! I was really surprised at how much warmer it is here than in Nicaragua. While I definitely enjoyed the beach and yoga everyday, one of the highlights was an aerial silk class that I took. I was able to climb up the silk, wrap it around me, hang upside down in several different positions, and do lots of other fun things! Definitely something I want to do again some time, and it left my arms sore for days!

Nate surfing

Today we woke up early and took buses and a boat to the capital of Costa Rica: San Jose. Walking down the main strip we were accosted by so much stimuli, it was a little jarring after our quiet surf town. People had markets set up on the sidewalk, shopping carts full of fruit to sell, or were just carrying there wares; and all were yelling about what they had to offer! The street, closed off to cars, was packed with people hurrying about, one man was even carrying a couple dead, gutted pigs on his back. We ended the evening with a movie and are looking forward to the adventures that tomorrow will bring!

Baby turtles in Maderas

Holding a turtle!

Running to sea

After living cheap in San Juan del Sur for a couple days, we decided to splurge and stay at a nice hotel 15 minutes north by Maderas beach. We went from paying $15 a night to $40 a night! A big difference, but I've really loved staying here. Our room is nice, there's a pool, we're right by a gorgeous beach, and there are baby turtles!!!! We did not know about the turtles till after we arrived, so it was a delightful surprise. We got to hold one of them, which was just amazing. They're so tiny and adorable. At sunset we took them out to the beach to set them free. There were about 70 little guys making their way to the water. Sometimes they would head off in the wrong direction, so we would pick them up and turn them around. When they got to the water, a wave would come in and sweep them away, which seemed like a very tumultuous experience for the little guys. Some of them would end up getting pushed further back on the beach though, and would have to walk even further! It was fun to be down there rooting for the guys. It was really such an amazing experience to witness, and we're very lucky to have stumbled upon it.

The owner of Casa Maderas, where we are staying, is trying to help repopulate Marsella beach with turtles. Right now there are lots of turtles coming to nest at the La Flor beach reserve, but they are non existent at the other beaches. Lilly, the owner of Casa Maderas, takes eggs from the reserve to the Casa, where they hatch, and then they take all the baby turtles to the beach. Apparently, turtles can memorize where they first enter the ocean and will come back in 7-15 years to lay eggs. It's pretty amazing that they are able to memorize what beach they came from! Lilly is paying for the whole project out of her own pocket, which costs her about $1000 a month. She has to pay for permits, and a lot of times the officials make her pay bribes in addition, such as paying for dentist visits or new tires. I can't believe how corrupt it is! Even though she pays so much in fees, she still takes people for free to help liberate the turtles, which is so amazing. In town, there are lots of expensive tours that go to the reserve in hopes of seeing turtles, but there are no guarantees. We got to go for free and actually be a part of the process! This is also the first year she has done this project, and eggs will only be hatching over about a week long period, so we arrived here at the perfect time. I'm so grateful to have been able to be a part of this experience! It's definitely been one of the highlights of the trip, and it wasn't even planned.

Our private beach!

Apart from the baby turtles, I have really loved staying at our hotel. It's nice to have been able to lay by the pool and read, and the beach here is definitely my favorite. We're about a ten minute walk over the hill from the beach, which is pretty full of surfers. The last couple days, however, Nate and I would walk along the beach for 20 minutes north, and we would just reach beaches that were uninhabited. I was mesmerized by how beautiful everything was, the colors were so vibrant.

Ometepe, Nicaragua

We spent yesterday on the beautiful Isla de Ometepe, an island formed by two volcanoes out in a large lake in Nicaragua. Walking around the main town of Myogalpa, you can see the largest of the volcanoes looming in the distance, always with some clouds rolling over its peak. It was definitely an amazing site to behold. 

Volcano through the banana trees!

We spent the day on the motorbike going around the island; Nate at the wheel and me behind him holding on for dear life, and being grateful for the speed bumps that made us slow down. He wasn’t driving fast (don’t worry mom!), I’m just a scaredy cat. Part of the island was paved, but the majority was a very rocky dirt road that we had to go slowly over. The island is filled with bright green banana trees, and again you can always see one of the volcanoes off in the distance. Everyone in Nicaragua is so friendly; locals would always say hi and wave when we rode by, and were often seen joking around or rough housing with each other. Everyone seemed pretty jovial. 

At the end of our trip we stopped at agua de ojo, a little swimming hole between the two islands where lots of people were hanging out, locals included. We ended up spending about 5 or 6 hours on the bike, and the tops of my thighs got sun burnt, ouch! Ometepe was a beautiful island, the only downfall was that we were there on a Sunday, and pretty much no restaurants were open. Probably the worse food we’ve had yet. For dinner we were only able to find one pizza place open, but they were only a small step above eating cardboard. There are plenty of good looking restaurants on the island, they just all close on Sundays. Today we made our way to San Juan del Sur, and we’re both ready for some more beach time!

In San Juan del Sur there's a little bridge going over a creek that was reminiscent of a very, very small scale version of the Golden Gate. It reminded me of living in Marin, and I just had to take a picture.

Sting Ray at Hermosa Beach

San Juan del Sur beach

We went to beautiful Hermosa beach the other day, just south of San Juan del Sur and where survivor was filmed. There were a bunch of people there, but the beach was so expansive that it wasn't crowded at all. We got a ride there with Tao, an acquaintance of Nate, who sold everything he owned and moved to San Juan del Sur to open up a burger joint, Nacho Libre. We played in the water for a bit and Nate rented a surf board. I didn't stand up, but I had fun riding the waves to shore a couple times, just lying on my belly. I decided to get out of the water for a bit, and that's when the day took a turn for the worse. I stepped on something sharp, which made me yelp and run out of the water. At first I thought maybe a crab had pinched the bottom of my foot, since I felt a scraping/pinching sensation. There was a small cut on my foot that was bleeding quite a bit. Nate carried me to where our friends were sitting, and Tao quickly realized I had stepped on a sting ray. A local guy working at a bar filled up a tub with hot water for me to soak my foot in. He also warmed up some sap to put over the cut, a local remedy. My left foot got really swollen, I couldn't even bend my toes. The pain was really intense, coming in waves and causing me to grimace. It even crept up my leg, so that part of my calf and hamstring hurt. I was lucky in the fact that the sting ray probably did not inject too much venom, as most people cry from the pain or find it really debilitating. I heard some horror stories from other people who had been stung before. It hurt a lot, but it could have been a lot worse.

The cut on my foot and some sap

Apparently, someone gets stung at least once a day at this beach, and when the water is clear you can see them swimming around! We had no idea. Also, you're supposed to shuffle your feet when walking in the ocean. I guess we learned this the hard way.

Beautiful sunset!

When we got to our hostel, the owners encouraged me to go to the hospital and called a cab over for us. At the hospital I got a couple of really painful shots of lidocaine into the bottom of my foot. The shots really hurt, and usually I can stand pain better. I was very grateful for them though because it made my foot feel a million times better! My foot was still really swollen. The doctor was really nice, and I think my Spanish has improved because I was able to understand most of what she was saying. I was seen immediately and the whole doctor visit was free! Gotta love fee health care. After this there was no taxi in sight, so Nate carried me to a delicious pizza dinner. Onward my trusty steed! Between the adrenaline, a shot of lidocaine, and a rum and coke I had at the bar to help deal with the pain, I felt a little loopy. I was so grateful not to be in pain any more! I still couldn't really walk though since my whole foot was completely numb. Luckily the venom leaves your system in a couple hours, so I was fine the next day. I just have a cut on the bottom of my foot that makes me hobble a little.

Zip Line in Granada

Today we did a zip line tour, which was awesome! We had two great tour guides who took plenty of pics and showed us a good time. It was definitely exciting! The first time was a little scary but after that it was just exhilarating. My favorite was the last one we did. The line was coming down to the ground, and the guide at the bottom would jerk the line up and down making me bounce while zipping through the trees giggling! We also went upside down, which was fun. At the end though I realized that I didn't know how I was supposed to stop, and sort of just slammed into the guide, oh well. We also did a superman man position, where you're facing down and holding your arms open. Definitely had a blast! My leg did get scraped up though, I think it must have happened when hanging upside down. I didn't even feel it happen though, too distracted
.

Battle wound!

We're leaving Granada tomorrow, but I have really enjoyed this town. We've been pretty lazy here, just strolling around town and not doing many tours. The highlight was definitely the gym! I woke up every morning and took work out classes at Pure. The guys who taught the classes are locals, so it was another fun way to practice Spanish. One of the teachers kicked me butt. I was so sore I could barely walk down stairs!

Chocolate & Turtles in Granada

Granada

We are currently staying in the colonial town of Granada, in Nicaragua. It is geared towards tourists, and a lot of money has been spent to repair old buildings and keep everything relatively clean. The result is a gorgeous town, although a little on the pricier side (although still cheaper than the US). All the houses are pressed together, alternating in various colors. Also, must places are built as a square with a garden in the center, which provides a beautiful setting in restaurants and our hostel. We're only paying $12 US a night for our own room, which includes a gym membership and free salsa classes (woohoo!) We took a salsa class last night which was tons of fun and a good way to practice Spanish speaking skills. The grand finale was the four guys kneeling in a circle, having an arm on each others shoulder. Us girls came and sat on their interlocking arms, and then the guys stood up and walked in a slow circle. Luckily they didn't drop us! It was an exciting way to end the class.

Making chocolate!

Today Nate and I took a chocolate making class at the gym from a girl from Colorado who has a good sense of humor and was a lot of fun. After a brief lesson on how cocoa is grown and the beans are prepared, we started off roasting the cocoa beans and finely chopping dulce, which is sugar that is completely unprocessed and delicious. We then had to deshell the beans and grind them up in a coffee grinder while the dulce mixed with water simmered on the stove. Unfortunately, we got so immersed in conversation that we burned the first batch of dulce and had to make some more. After this we thoroughly mixed the dulce with the ground beans, and then rolled out little balls of chocolate. The chocolate is good but very bitter, and apparently the process of adding milk takes away all the healthy properties of chocolate (darn!) It's a great source of energy, without causing a rapid spike and then crash in energy levels, and has more antioxidants than green tea. While tasting good, I think we can improve the recipe by rolling the dark chocolate balls in milk chocolate and adding raspberries. We'll have to experiment later.

Our final product!

After teaching us how to make chocolate, our teacher introduced us to a turtle they keep on the gym property and show us what leaves we could feed him. He was very excited to get fed and quickly, in turtle standards, followed us out of his little house to get some leaves. It was fun to feed him and see him chomping on the leaves!

Nomnomnom!

Jiquilillo, Nicaragua

Our beach! I liked the clouds being reflected in the water

--> After 3 days of traveling, we arrive in Jiquilillo, a tiny town with literally nothing but sand, surf, and sun. We’re staying in dorm style rooms at Rancho Esperanzo. The last couple days have been spent walking along the beach, swimming, and doing a whole lot of reading. While mainly being lazy, I have been a little active, running both mornings on the beach for a couple miles and doing some yoga. We also swam a little too far out in the ocean on Sunday, and had to fight the current to swim back, giving us some unplanned exercise. I kept feeling like I was swimming hard and not getting any closer to the shore. It made me a little nervous, especially since I’m not the strongest swimmer, but luckily we made it back! This happened on our way to the Estuary, which was a 3 mile walk down the beach. Our feet were definitely killing us on the way back! Yesterday was much more mellow. Mainly reading in hammocks, with a few breaks to jump in the ocean.

Sunset through my sunglasses

Our first night here we lazily sprawled in the hammocks to watch the sun set over the ocean, and I got an opportunity to mess around with my camera. Everything looks so different when I’m wearing my sunglasses, so I took a few pictures through the lens, which I thought came out pretty neat.

Now about traveling! We’re becoming experts. We woke up at 5 in Utila to catch the 630 ferry to La Ceiba. We ended up traveling with two people from Amsterdam, one of which I went diving with a few times. We caught a bus from La Ceiba to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Here we were accosted by taxi drivers, who were surprisingly inefficient. After arguing amongst themselves for ten minutes and herding us back and forth between taxis, we finally got in one to drive to a different, safer, part of town. 

A little kid sweeping up the street in front of the family's shop

Driving through the streets we were struck by the poverty. There were poorly constructed houses everywhere. The streets were lined with stalls where people were selling an assortment of things. I saw one lady standing barefoot in the dirt selling socks. It is definitely a lot different than back home, and makes me appreciate our standard of living. After setting up shop in our hotel, we walked around a main street cut off from the cars. We instantly felt much safer in this area and were glad we decided not to get a hotel by the bus station. We indulged and enjoyed some McDonalds for dinner. There really weren’t any restaurants in the area, not even small local shops; just American fast food.

Sunset in Jiquilillo

The next morning, we woke up early and took a cab to the bus station, where we were planning to take a bus to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Unfortunately, it was full, so the four of us got in another cab to a different bus station. Here we caught a microbus to El Paraiso, a town near the border. We had to hop onto another bus to get to the border, where we were met with tons of different fees we had to pay. After getting through immigration, one more guy came up to us that we had to pay. We only had to pay one US dollar, or 25 Cordobas. I still had Lempiras though, from Honduras. He didn’t have change in Lempiras, but I could use the Cordobas our Amsterdam friends paid with for change. Having to convert between the US, Lempiras, and Cordobas, while talking in Spanish made my head spin. I didn’t realize till later that the guy ripped me off! He only took me for 2 dollars, but I was frustrated because if I had just taken a moment to think through the exchange rate instead of trusting him, I could have prevented the situation. In America, though, you can usually trust that cops and officials won’t be ripping you off, but down here I have to be a little more aware. Oh well, lesson learned.

From the border, we took a bus to the neighboring town of Ocotal, and from here a bus to Esteli. I took a bathroom break in Ocotal, and when I came out I didn’t see our bus anywhere! Luckily a bunch of locals waved at me and pointed after a bus that was slowly inching away. I had to run to it and hop in through the back door where Nate was waiting with our things! This was another example of how locals here are all very helpful. From here we went to Esteli. We separated from our Dutch friends and then began our search for a hotel. All the ones we went to were filled, or the prices had doubled. One said there were rooms but the owner wasn’t around, so we went off to eat pizza and wait. Eventually we got a room. Clean, for the most part, but not too private. The wall dividing our room from our neighbors wasn’t flesh to the wall, and there was a hole between our rooms that Nate put duct tape over. We could hear everything, but luckily people went to sleep early. At 530 we woke up to look for the bus. We weren’t too impressed with the town and we were sick of cities and ready for the beach anyway, so we decided to go to Jiquilillo, a quiet beach town that’s a little more off the grid. We took a bus to Leon, and from here caught a bus to Chinandega. None of the minivan buses wanted to give us a ride because of our big old back packs, but luckily Nate found a big bus that would take us. 

In our bike taxi

In Chinandega we got a ride to our next bus station by a little bicycle taxi, which was fun. I felt bad for the guy who was dripping with sweat after biking the two of us and our heavy back packs around town. The roads were filled with these bike taxis, but there were also cars and horse drawn carts. Definitely not what you see back home! The bus ride to Juiqilillo was just like all the rest. All the seats full, and every time we stopped tons of people would come on the bus to try to sell chips, sodas, gum, ice cream, the list goes on. They come on the front of the bus, yelling and pushing past you, and then out the back. I caved and bought some fruit from a little girl, but then instantly a couple of her friends wanted me to buy from them to. They should be off in elementary school, not on a bus selling things! I felt bad for them. I keep imagining how different my life would have been if I had been born down here, and am grateful for all the luxuries we take for granted back home!

Diving in Utila

Me, my instructor, and my classmate right after getting certified!

Diving was an awesome experience. I ended up being in a class with one other girl, Jing, from Toronto. I’m very happy we had a small class size because we both got lots of attention and didn’t have to wait while our instructor was helping other people. It was a more personal experience. Our instructor, Heather, instantly set me at ease. It was quickly apparent that she was very knowledgeable about diving, cared about teaching, and put safety as her number one priority. The afternoon before our first dive lesson was raining, which made me nervous, but luckily it has been clear ever since.

Jing & I in scuba gear!

We started out right off the shore in shallow water, just kneeling on our knees. It was comforting to know that we could just stand up if anything went wrong. Breathing under water with a regulator was definitely a trip the first time we did it. We did a few skills here, and then went to deeper water, about 10 ft, to practice the skills some more. I was a little nervous because I am not very good at equalizing my ears, but it turned out to not be a problem. I was so preoccupied with trying to equalize my ears while exhaling on the way down that I kept forgetting to inhale. It sounds silly because breathing is so natural to do above ground, but I’m used to holding my breath when I go under water, not breathing. We had to take off our masks underwater for a minute, which is the skill most people have a hard time with. I thought it would be more difficult, because I often hold my nose when jumping in the water and hate getting water in my face, but it turned out to be easy. After mastering our skills, we had a night off, and the next day we had our first dive out in the open water. It was very exciting to go diving. We saw lots of beautiful fish, many an electric blue color. The visibility right now is only so-so because it’s spawning season – meaning there is fish sperm everywhere, lovely. We had to repeat our skills in the open water, one of which was taking off the mask and putting it back on and clearing it. While easy to do in the shallow water, I did not like doing it in the deep water, I think I just freaked myself out because we were 12m under water and I couldn’t open my eyes and see anything. I ended up inhaling some water through my nose which wasn’t too fun.

After finishing my open water certification, I moved onto the advanced open water course, we just entails doing 5 more different dives. We did a deep dive, going down 30m to a boat wreck. While it was interesting to see the wreck, it was not my favorite because there just wasn’t a lot of wildlife to see down there. Also, when we got down to the bottom of the ocean, I realized my regulator wasn’t working very well, so I switched to my alternate. I forgot to clear it though before taking my first breath, and so I got a mouthful of water – grr. Then we did a PPB dive to work on our buoyancy. We took turns swimming through hoops and knocking over weights with our regulators. The next day we did a dive to work on our navigation skills with a compass and then did a drift dive. The drift dive was definitely my favorite so far, even though it wasn’t much of a drift because there wasn’t a current pushing us along. We swam for 40 minutes and surfaced, where the boat came to pick us up instead of turning around half way through the dive. This dive was my favorite because we saw so much wildlife. There were lots of beautiful fish of all different colors, munching on algae or digging through the sand. I also saw two fishes fighting by biting at each other’s mouths. The highlight was seeing a little orange sea horse. I was able to swim right up to him; he was hanging onto a plant about 3 inches from my face. Seeing all the colorful wildlife was amazing, and I have just one more dive left until I am certified.

Beach at Utila!

Diving definitely takes a lot out of you. I went to bed pretty early every night after diving, completely exhausted, and always had a large appetite as well. Last night was New Year’s Eve, and I was planning to go out and do something, but I couldn’t muster the energy. Plus, being on the rocky boat definitely made me feel nauseas and unsettled. After eating dinner, Nate and I ended up taking a nap, setting our alarm clocks for 1130. We got up and went down to the dock in front of our hotel to watch the fireworks, and we were the only people down there. We were able to see four different fire work shows that went for about an hour, so we were able to have a fun albeit mellow evening. Today we’re taking a break from diving. Since it’s not wise to dive hung over, the dive shops decide to just close and give everyone the day off. I actually appreciate it because even though I’m not hung over, my body is still suffering from some vertigo from being on the boats so much. We have spent the day lying out on the dock and swimming in the ocean, not a bad way to spend the first day of the year!