Arenal

We've had a fantastic few days in the wonderland surrounding Lake Arenal and its counterpart, Volcano Arenal. There's a lot to see and do in this area of Costa Rica, so we've been taking it easy on our bikes. Though we've covered less than 100 km since I last wrote, we've been busy!

After biking uphill from Tilaran on Wednesday, we got our first view of Lake Arenal. During the high season, this is a haven for windsurfing and kiteboarding since the winds are high. The electricity-generating windmills on the hills around the lake also attest to the gustiness of the area. Since the lake is man-made and dammed, as well, this is where most of the power for all of western Costa Rica is generated.



Those windmills on the top of the hills surrounding Lake Arenal.

We were expecting the heaviest amount of tourist traffic yet as we started our ride around the lake, so we were surprised when very few cars passed us. After about 15 km we discovered why: a HUGE chunk of road was gone. We rolled up to a giant mud pit in the road, impassable by anything with more than 2 wheels. We had little trouble pushing our bikes into the ditch and back up, but other vehicles had a bit more difficulty. We saw crates of produce being unloaded one-by-one on one side of the ditch and hand-carried to a waiting truck on the other side. Any tour bus passengers headed that way have to disembark their bus, pick their way through the muck, and reboard another bus waiting on the opposite side. Any uninformed drivers of personal vehicles are shit-out-of-luck because there simply aren't any detours that won't take you at least 200 kilometers and 5 hours out of your way. Needless to say, we were suddenly enlightened as to why there weren't too many tourists or vehicles of any sort around. Not that we minded.



Here's that huge hole in the road. Apparently the road was simply washed out by some heavy rains (not surprising). Construction is ongoing to install some better drainage and a proper bridge.

The area around the lake is a bit geared toward your European tourist -- or at least that's how it seems. Every other resort is run by a Swede or boasts German eats. I felt like I was in Epcot Center. Luckily all this kitsch doesn't detract too much from the beauty of the area!

Plenty of the time we found ourselves winding through stretches that would have seemed completely remote if it weren't for the nicely paved road. The trees and plant life are amazingly diverse and colorful here. We also found loads of monkeys, bright and chirpy birds, and even a few pizotes (I think they're related to raccoons, but they look like really fuzzy little bears with long tails. They're sooo cute, and friendly enough to chase after cars). All of this beautiful plant and animal life was periodically punctuated by a gorgeous view of the lake or the volcano looming overhead. Arenal may just be my favorite place from this trip.



A moth on a pretty blue background. We also saw several blue morpho butterflies the color of the background, but they wouldn't stay still long enough for Mike to photograph them.



A monkey performing some acrobatics for us.



And another one stretching or scratching his back. (The pic's a bit out of focus, but that's because I took this one.)



Mike actually found this emerald basilisk lizard at the Tabacon hot springs, but I thought I'd put him with the rest of the animal photos.

On the first day of our Tour de Arenal we stopped at a great little gallery just beyond the hole in the road. It's called the Casa Delagua and features the work of an artist named Juan Carlos Ruiz Soto. We had a nice chat with him and I bought a small painting of the volcano. If you're interested, I linked his web site on the left. Neat stuff.

We finished our first day at an Eco-lodge called La Ceiba. It wasn't our first pick (a little pricier than we would have liked), but we missed the other places we were looking for somehow and it was getting late. The driveway was ridiculously long and steep, but once we actually made it up to the hotel we had a very nice view of the lake. The German couple running the place was very nice and made us an elaborate breakfast in the morning (included in the price of the room). The best part about this lodge was the enormous ceiba tree on the property. Supposedly it's over 500 years old, about 60 meters tall, and famous all over Costa Rica.



Here I am standing at the base of the Ceiba tree.



And here's a view of the whole tree. I'm still standing at the base, as Mike has helpfully pointed out. In fact, he copied my image and stacked it 25 times in the picture. Not that that is even an acurate representation of the tree's height since the perspective is from a hill above it...

The next day on our Tour de Arenal we splurged BIG TIME. We stayed at a top-notch hot springs resort at the base of the Arenal volcano. It's called Tabacon, and I posted a link to its web site on the left too, if you're interested. The hotel room was plush and we were even supplied fluffy robes, but the best part by far was the hot springs resort. Built right in the midst of the jungle, the resort had multiple pools of varying temperatures tucked away between trees and flowers. Some of the pools looked like typical resort pools with slides or fake waterfalls or wet bars, but there were others that were more carefully integrated into the surroundings. Many pools were very natural-looking, and Mike an I weren't really sure how much of the place had been constructed and how much was pre-existing. There were waterfalls and rocky streams everywhere. The black volcanic rock lined many of the pools and slightly smaller rocks made up the bottoms. It was heavenly to sit in those hot springs after all the biking we've done, and especially nice once the rain started coming down. Since we were staying at the hotel, we had access to the hot springs for both our check-in and our check-out days. We took advantage of both and didn't leave on the second day until after 3:00. We purposely planned a very short day of biking to a town called La Fortuna.



A nice stock photo of resort lounge chairs.



A pretty plant by the pool.



Even the food was pretty.



Here I am sitting in one of the waterfalls at the hot springs. Not the most attractive expression on my face, but I'm sure you've come to expect that by now -- besides, that water was HOT! Can you tell how much darker my arms are than my legs? They see a lot more sunlight. You can also kind of make out my sandal tan. That'll be cute with my shoes for Kristen's wedding.



Even the streams at Tabacon were hot.



There were beautiful plants and flowers surrounding all of the pools.



Mike is lounging in one of the hot springs and I'm the photographer for a change.



Mike getting pounded by a hot waterfall.

On the way from Tabacon the volcano sent up a few puffs of smoke in a small eruption. We still haven't seen any lava, but at least there was some activity. It's quite a sight, towering overhead.



Here's a pic of that ashy eruption.

Today we're just chilling in Fortuna before our last stretch of biking. I'm dreading the last couple of days because we have to bike several thousand feet up to get to the airport. We only have about 120 km to go, but they might be our hardest yet. At any rate, I'll be ready for a bit of a break back in the States.

Here are a few more pictures related to past posts:



The Taiwanese Friendship Bridge.



The mosaiced front of the Catholic church in Cañas, decorated by artist Otto Apuy.



The church's unusually-themed jungle stained glass window.



I don't believe I've mentioned this before... Every so often we come across this symbol painted on the pavement in the road. I did a bit of research and found out that they mark the spot where a pedestrian has been killed by a motor vehicle. The symbol serves as a sort of memorial and a warning. There are far too many of them on the roads, if you ask me.



Mike was convinced that the Cat in the Hat was hiding from us behind this hill.

Okay, that's it for now in terms of pictures, but I'll fill you in on the latest poll. We had to patch or replace my tire tube 6 times between September 10th and 12th! It was pretty damn frustrating. Had to do it again just the other day, too. Hopefully, it will hold out for our last three days of biking!

Wet and Wild!

So, the last couple of days have been very . . . wet. It rains everyday here, usually from about 2:00 on, but that's not even the whole story. Before I can even see a cloud in the sky I'm drenched, because when it's not raining the sun beats down on me with scorching intensity. My cheeks were sweating so profusely today that it probably looked like I was grieving a loss. I was sweating like a guilty fat man being given a lie detector test in a sauna . . . on the sun. Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore heat, the clouds rolled in and began dumping rain. That's when I got cold. It's still raining now, 8 hours later, and I'm afraid Mike and I will have to rent a canoe for tomorrow instead of taking our bikes on the road. Sheesh!

Anyways, our bike trip from Nicoya yesterday was a doozy. We took a crazy route (the only one really) that led us snaking around the mouth of the river that spills into the bay separating the mainland from the peninsula we had been on. The only problem was that the bridge on the route was not where the map said it was. We took a massive detour that added about 15 kilometers to our day, which we had already planned to be a long one. The bridge was lovely though. Constructed by the Taiwanese and pleasantly named the Friendship Bridge, it is the pride of Costa Ricans who snap photos of its unusual design. Despite the detour, we pressed on (through the rain) and made it to Cañas before nightfall.

The coolest thing about Cañas is its zany Catholic church. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Well this particular church has been attacked by artist Otto Apuy, and, as our guidebook claims, "is unlike anything on display at the Vatican." The entire front of the church is covered in tiled mosaic, as are many of the other features on the outside of the building. There's the traditional shepherd and some crosses, but there are also some rather trippy designs. The large stain glass features a jungle scene rather than something explicitly biblical. Sadly, the inside is as boring as most of the churches we've seen. I'll put up pictures of the mosaics soon.

Today we biked only a short distance to a town called Tilaran, but the ride was mostly uphill and we wanted to take it easy after our long day Monday. Next, we'll slowly work our way around Lake Arenal towards the volcano on the other side, which is known for its regular fireworks shows. Speaking of fireworks, I now have some pictures of our fireworks-less Costa Rican Independence Day:



An un-enthused parade dancer.



This drummer boy was kind of getting into the spirit.



A pile of maracas being sold a few feet from the festivities.



Some interesting boats off the coast of Coco, Costa Rica.



A boy and his bike on the beach (which had nice rocky outcroppings).



Sand fight! The sand in Coco is very dark and almost has the consistency of mud.

Well, that's it for now. Take care, everyone! We'll be seeing you soon!

What?!? No Fireworks?!?

So, Independence Day turned out to be a bit of a flop. I was hoping for some crazy, colorful festivities, but we either missed them or they plain didn't happen. We got up in time to see the parade, but it was pretty dull compared to some of the impromptu parades we've just happened across on our trip. Basically, it consisted of various groups of school children marching, playing instuments, and dancing (sort of). None of them did so with much enthusiasm -- probably because it was so hot. The bands were almost entirely made up of drummers, which makes for more of a racket than anything. One of the bands had a saxophonist and a trumpeter, but we watched them pass by slowly and I didn't hear those brass instruments once. The dancers (if you could call them that)were kind of amusing though. There was one group of girls in mini-skirts, button-down long-sleeved blouses, black ties, dark sunglasses, and white knee socks that marched by very slowly, stomping only their left feet with every step. They looked like crazy robots. Sadly, after the parade, nothing else happened. No fireworks or anything at night either.

Mike and I spent the rest of the day on Saturday walking along the beach, taking photos and looking for seashells. It was nice. A little rainy, but so is every other day here.

Today we biked southeast to a town called Nicoya. We're trying to schlep our bums over to the volcanoes as speedily as possible since we want to have a bit of time left to chill in the hot springs before heading to San Jose and leaving Central America. Nicoya is more of a stop-over than a destination, but it's nice enough.

I don't have much for news since I posted just the other day, but I wanted to add a little something before tacking on these photos!



Pacific sunset viewed from a hilltop in La Cruz, Costa Rica.



One of the boys in costume, dancing in the central park of La Cruz.



And the girls, all lined-up in their pretty dresses.



Here's a contrast for you: from pretty little girls to parts of a dead cow by the side of the road. Eww!

Central American Country Numero Seis

Well, we've made it to our final destination country for this leg of our journey; Mike and I will be spending the next 2 weeks in Costa Rica before heading back to the States to visit family and friends and attend my sister's wedding (so excited!).

On Tuesday morning we left the island of Ometepe and its thigh-trashing volcanoes behind (Can you believe we're still in pain 3 days later? Pathetic.). We caught an early ferry to the mainland on the western edge of the lake and began our 40 km ride south to the border. It proved an easy crossing as usual, and we continued another 20 km to our first stop in Costa Rica: La Cruz.

La Cruz provided an excellent view of the Pacific in the distance, but it turned out to be an interesting stop for a couple of other reasons, as well. First of all, there was some kind of event at the parque central featuring dances and costumes. We saw tons of cute little kids dressed up in fancy dresses and suits. The girls all had buns and flowers in their hair and the boys wore decorated straw hats. One group we saw perform consisted of kids around 6 years old, and we also saw some older teenagers in costume, though we missed their dance. I'll try to add some photos later, but it was already quite dark outside and I don't think they turned out real well. After we returned from our stroll around the park and dinner we met a German couple staying at our hotel. They, too, are on a bike trip, but theirs has taken them around the world. They've been traveling since March 2006 and have put 39,000 kilometers on their bikes. Even crazier still, the man is 68 years old and puts me to shame! Just to name a few countries, they've been through Turkey, Iran, India, Vietnam, Australia, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia, Panama, and loads more. Now that's a good way to spend retirement!

Today we battled some strong crosswinds to make it to a pretty large city called Liberia. One thing that we've noticed is that Costa Rica is a lot cleaner than its Central American neighbors -- almost sterile in comparison. We haven't seen much trash or many dead animals on the road; all of the buses have been greyhound-style rather than hand-me-down school buses; and most people we've seen have been driving 4-door sedans instead of pedalling bikes, driving carts pulled by donkeys, riding horses, walking, or piling into full-to-bursting pickup trucks. The police seem to be on virtually every street corner as well. With its more American atmosphere, Costa Rica comes with U.S. prices once more too (bummer!). Perhaps it will be good in helping us transition back to the States for a bit though -- maybe we won't go into complete culture shock when we arrive back home in two weeks.

Costa Rica has certainly been beautiful so far, and we're looking forward to a range of activities in the upcoming days. We'll head to the beaches in the northwest first, then bike east toward the volcanoes and hot springs north of San Jose. We've already seen some monkeys chillin' in the trees by the highway, and Mike caught sight of an awesome bird, so we're hoping to see some neat wildlife as well.

For now, I'll give you a taste of our hike up Volcan Maderas and a few other photos from the island. Oh, and don't miss the new poll to the left!



Crazy cloud forest trees!



The monkeys are watching our progress.



Here are some more crazy vines and trees. Can you picture us swinging through these all day?



Mike's favorite plant. Remind you of anything?



Our summit shot. It's not the best photo of the two of us, but you can kind of see the crater lake behind us.



Here's a better shot of just the lake. We were told that it only has about 2 meters of water in it, but that the mud on the bottom goes much, much deeper.



Here's a view of Lake Nicaragua and Isla Ometepe below from one of the few breaks in the dense jungle vegetation.



Concepcion, the other volcano on Ometepe. This one's active and emits toxic gases, so we didn't climb it (as if that's the only reason...).



A view of Concepcion from the west.



Say, "Bacon!" Actually, we ate at a restaurant in Moyogalpa that claimed to have the only bacon available on the island. With as many pigs as there are running around, you'd think the islanders would have lots of crispy bacon for breakfast.



"Don't mind me." This is what we had to contend with on the roads of Ometepe: lots of dirt, rocks, cows, and cow patties.

Jackie and Mike vs. the Volcano

We had a blast yesterday hiking up Volcano Maderas, but it pretty much kicked my ass. I thought I was in pretty good shape from all the biking we've done, but those muscles didn't help me hike 1300 meters up...and back down. I can barely walk. I was really dreading our bike ride to Moyogalpa this afternoon, but it turns out that my body hurts much less when I'm back on my bike. Guess that's where it's accustomed to being these days. Anyways, back to the volcano...

We got up nice and early, ate breakfast, and set out toward the volcano at 8:00. We were in the company of our guide, Manuel, and Eva, a Polish girl who helped translate some of our guide's more complex sentences. After an hour of hiking we were pouring sweat, but we were barely starting to climb. Mike paused to ring out his shirt, and we moved on. We saw quite a bit of wildlife including howler and capuchin monkeys, beautiful birds, and even crabs (don't ask me what they were doing 1000 ft. up on the slopes of a volcano). Things really started getting interesting when we made it up into the cloud forest, though. It's a whole new ecosystem to me, and the plant life is amazing. Mike hasn't uploaded the photos yet, but I can't wait to post them. The trees are so tangled and twisted, and everything is covered with hanging vines and moss. It's really wet and muddy too, which makes for a sloshing good time. I felt like Tarzan, swinging around on branches and vines. After 4 and 1/2 hours, we reached the top...at which point we began our descent into the crater.

We only went down into the crater about halfway, where we found an excellent outcropping of rock from which to view the crater lake. We sat down and ate lunch, resting up for our long hike back.

Down is always harder for me because my knees aren't in the best shape, but we slowly worked our way back to the bottom. It turned a bit treacherous when a good old-fashioned tropical rainstorm decided to dump a little water on us. Suddenly our path was a muddy, slippery river, steeply winding its way down the side of the volcano. Everyone slipped some, but luckily none of us twisted an ankle, took a really hard fall, or careened of the side of a cliff. The rain pissed off the monkeys, who became particularly vocal on the way down. Eventually, just after the sun went down, we made it to the bottom. We limped into our hotel at 6:30. Mike and I ate well, took hour-long cold showers (to get all the mud off), and went to bed early.

Today we woke up a bit sore (Ha! A bit...) and took our time checking out and leaving Hacienda Merida. This afternoon we biked halfway around the island to get to a town called Moyogalpa. I had tire problems, so we stopped to get the tube patched, but an hour later it was leaking again. By that time it was getting dark, so I just pumped it up a few more times so that we could make it to town (which we barely did by nightfall). Tomorrow we'll catch a ferry from here back to the mainland and then head to Costa Rica.

I'll be posting pictures from our epic Volcano Maderas hike soon, but for now here are our favorite pics from the dock at Hacienda Merida:



I didn't know lions could fly!



I'm a copycat, but I like this photo anyway.

One last thing: the answer to the latest poll. "One person less, one tortilla extra" is actually a Honduran proverb. The rest are Nicaraguan. Good job if you guessed right! I'll try to come up with a new poll soon!

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.