Coco, Costa Rica

Mike and I are on the Pacific coast for our first time on this crazy trip. We're staying in a town called Coco, Costa Rica, which I like to say because it sounds like I have a bad stutter. We biked in from Liberia yesterday, and I think we'll stay until Sunday morning. We like our digs (which come with a hot water shower, free laundry service, and a kitchenette for just over $20), and the town is nice too.

Today we went scuba diving with some lively characters from Rich Coast Divers on a nice trimaran boat. On our way out to sea we caught sight of some dolphins leaping out of the water in the distance. A couple people claimed to see whales as well, but despite their enormous size, I managed to miss them. That's okay though, because life under the sea was pretty interesting too.

The water was much colder than in the Caribbean, but we had a nice couple of dives. On our first we saw 3 white tip reef sharks, several octopus, a ton of eels (moray and otherwise), stingrays, and some very large schools of fish. Our second dive brought us in close contact with all of these same animals, plus a turtle, some harlequin clown shrimp, and a small wreck. The coral isn't as colorful in the Pacific as in the Caribbean, but I prefer to see the wildlife anyway. I thought the octopus were especially cool since they were very well camouflaged in the rocks. We caught one actually swimming around too, which was neat to see.

Tomorrow we're just going to bum around on the beach before we hop back on our bikes and head toward the mountains. Also, tomorrow is Costa Rica's Independence Day, so we're hoping to catch some festivities. We missed out on fireworks for the 4th of July in the U.S., but maybe we can pretend to be Ticos (that's what Costa Ricans are called) and celebrate independence here instead.

We're a bit behind with pictures, so here are a few from our last day in Nicaragua:



Some crazy pipes in Lake Nicaragua at the San Jorge port -- I wonder what they're used for...



Poor pet monkey chained to a tree. :(



They really like their horse carts in Southern Nicaragua.



This is an ad for the popular Nicaraguan rum, Flor de Caña. "A transparent rum for a transparent people." Is there some kind of more positive connotation for "transparente" in Spanish than there is in English? Can anyone explain this to me?



Our friend at the border is wearing a Scottsdale, AZ shirt.

Island Life

We got up early on Thursday so that we could spend a little time exploring Granada before catching a ferry to the island. Granada is a very pretty colonial town with many interesting churches and a nice central park. We walked around so that Mike could take pictures and we even went inside a couple of the churches. Although they're quite elaborate and pretty on the outside, they are awfully barren on the inside. They do contain some interesting statues though. Most of the statues are several hundred years old and are made of wood. They're painted, and some of them are clothed and bewigged as well. It's a kind of creepy effect: curly doll hair on an old wooden Jesus dressed in purple crushed velvet. You can judge for yourself from the picture below.



The yellow building in the distance is one of the Granada churches.



This is another of the churches.



A (creepy) wooden Jesus statue dressed in purple crushed velvet and a curly doll wig. The shepherd Jesus holding a stuffed lamb was fun too, but Mike didn't get a picture of that one.



Cigar rolling at a shop in Granada.

In the afternoon we boarded a ferry for the 3.5 hour boat ride to Ometepe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. The island is made of two volcanoes -- one active and one containing a lagoon in its crater. Our first night on the island we stayed on the north side by the active volcano in a town called Altagracia.



In the distance you can see Concepcion, the active volcano on Ometepe Island. The view is from our ferry as we docked just outside of Altagracia.



The sunset from the dock on Ometepe Island.

The next day we biked around to the opposite side of the island. The roads are dirt and are therefore rather bumpy, but they make things interesting. We saw lots of wild-ish pigs, cows, and horses (I say "wild-ish" because although I am sure they belong to someone, they don't look particularly well cared for and they roam about anywhere they please), and we spotted several really pretty butterflies and blue birds with long tails. Halfway to our destination we stopped at a tourist trap called Ojo de Agua. It's basically a pool filled with natural water (read: "not chlorinated and a little dirty") equipped with a rope swing. It was a nice stop on a hot day, but nothing too exciting. We hopped back on our bikes after an hour or so and biked the rest of the way to a town called Merida.



Pigs chillin' by the side of the road.



A pretty butterfly -- it's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but the top half of its wing is translucent.



The pool and rope swing at Ojo de Agua.



Plantains are big business on the island (and I think that's what these are).

Hacienda Merida is a nice hostel complete with loads of hammocks, wi-fi, a dock on the lake, buffet-style meals, kayaks, etc. It also serves as a great base camp for the island's outdoor activities. Today we rented the kayaks for a bit and paddled out to the two "Monkey Islands" nearby. One island contains two spider monkeys and the other contains a hoard of capuchin monkeys. All of the monkeys were rescued from abusive pet owners and placed on the islands to live in freedom. They're supposedly really aggressive, so we were advised against going too close; apparently, they have pretty sharp teeth. They're cute from a safe distance, though. Tomorrow we are thinking about hiking to the top of the volcano with a lagoon in its crater, so hopefully I can fill you in on that trip soon. In the meantime, here are some more pictures:



A lot of the motels in Nicaragua rent their rooms by the hour. Although they may be difficult to read in the picture, the hourly rates are painted on the side of this motel.



A team participating in the Tour de Nicaragua. You may recall that we ran into this event a few days ago while on the road ourselves.