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.

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.

Bikers Galore!

We left Esteli on Monday morning, having enjoyed a rat-free hotel with a hot water shower. We did a little bit of climbing through the mountains on our bikes first thing, but then we left the hills behind us for a while. We shouldn't have to do any more climbing until we get to Costa Rica, which is a relief to my thighs.



The hood in Esteli.

As soon as we cleared the mountains, a huge plain opened up before us. If it weren't for those peaks in the distance, we could have been in Kansas; it was that flat. In fact, some Nicaraguans seem to have been a bit confused themselves, because their farm was called “Kansas.”



A gate in the middle of Nicaragua that says "Kansas."



A nice farm picture.



Big, wide-open fields with mountains in the background.

We made our way through a busy farmer’s market in Sebaco shortly after, stopping only so Mike could photograph the colorful and nicely displayed vegetables. The vendors in this town were especially aggressive. We saw several leap into the air, grab hold of bus windows, and shove their onions into the faces of the trapped passengers. I'm not sure who buys bundles of onions while taking a bus ride through the countryside, but apparently the vendors thought there was a market for their wares. Personally, I think they would have been more successful with some cold beverages and less competition.



Pretty vegetables!



One of those crazy onion vendors.

Monday night we ended up in Ciudad Dario, which turned out to be disappointingly dull, despite its large-ish city size. We stayed at a cheap hotel that lacked screens on the windows. Luckily there weren't many mosquitoes, but all manner of other insects were attracted to the light in our room. This meant that by morning Mike and I were lying inches deep in bug carcasses. Okay, not really inches, but maybe a few millimeters at least. Some of the bugs had unwittingly flown into the fan and been pulverized, others were squashed by us, and still others seemed to think that our bed was just a good place to grow old and die. After discovering a giant, poisonous centipede in our bathroom sink, I was ready to leave. Clearly some of the hotels we have been staying in recently are not CNN partner hotels.

Tuesday we biked about 70 kilometers further south, mostly going downhill or along flat stretches. We ran into a pair of cyclists heading north and stopped to chat for a bit. They were from Spain and had been traveling north for 7 months from Patagonia. We swapped info about what to expect on the road and set off again. It was kind of fun to meet a couple of people even crazier than us – especially since any other tourist has become a novelty. Sometimes I feel like the kids we pass on the road who point and shout after us, “Gringos, gringos!” Every time I spot other gringos my curiosity is piqued and I wonder what the hell they are doing in the middle of nowhere (just like us). It’s been a few weeks, but as of today we’re back in tourist country.

Tuesday night we stayed in Tipitapa, which is fun to say. Tipitapa, Tipitapa, Tipitapa. Otherwise, it’s fairly unremarkable.

This morning we had barely left Tipitapa when we ran into a whole gaggle of bikers – several gaggles even. Turns out that the Tour de Nicaragua is in full swing and we ran across the teams on one of their time-trial days. The whole way to Masaya (our half-way town of the day) we were continuously passed by racing bikers, completing their 40 km circuit for the day. They had a slight advantage though, since they weren't carrying 60 lbs. of crap with them.

Tonight we're in Granada, which seems to be a very nice, touristy, colonial town. We were planning on staying at least an extra day, but the ferry schedule on Lake Nicaragua may prevent that. Apparently we can only catch a ride to the island on Thursday or Monday. Guess we'll just have to laze around the island for an extra day instead.



A nice mud hut.



An Army convoy.



Moooo!



Mike really liked this mural. Partly because it says "ASU Nightclub." Ha ha.



Typical Nicaraguan transportation.

Badass Bugs and Ruthless Rats

Nicaragua welcomed us with a rainstorm on Friday. The last several miles to the border were all uphill, and we arrived panting and sweating. That didn't last long though. The moment we got our passports stamped, the sky opened up. We thought about waiting it out, but after a few minutes we decided that it probably wasn't going to let up anytime soon. Miked donned full rain gear (jacket, pants, even Goretex socks), but I thought I'd tough it out with only a jacket. About 30 seconds after venturing out in the rain I changed my mind. It was one of the few times Mike turned out to be right. Immediately after the border we started going down the other side of the hills we'd just climbed, but this time we practically froze. It's chilly biking downhill in the rain, even in Nicaragua. It did clear soon enough though, and the mostly downhill introduction to Nicaragua was beautiful. We found ourselves in a town called Ocotal that night.



Pretty flowers and a quaint cottage.

Yesterday we biked a short distance to a town called Condega and decided to call it quits since the road ahead was mostly uphill and the next town was just a bit too far. We took the extra afternoon hours to wander the town. We met a man named Daniel who spoke English and proceeded to share his political views with us. He admitted to the interesting paradox of admiring both Bush and socialism. Go figure. He did treat us to Cokes and tacos, though. We also discovered that Condega was hosting a televised Christian rock concert that evening. We watched the set-up and intended to join the gathering, but then it started to rain pretty good. We retired to our hotel room for the evening instead. We did entertain some company though; a rat the size of a cat kept running back and forth across the beams on the ceiling. I never caught more than a glimpse of him, but Mike nearly screamed several times when he made appearances. I didn't sleep real well, but I didn't wake up with the rat sitting on my chest either, so I guess it could have been worse.

Today we made it to Esteli after climbing a-thousand-some-odd feet. It was a pretty pleasant day, and I saw one of the most beautiful butterflies ever. It was at least the size of my fist and brilliantly blue. There are actually quite a lot of pretty insects around here. I've seen loads of other butterflies, glimpsed several hot pink and purple dragonflies, and had a close encounter with an iridescent emerald green bug of some sorts. One minute I'm biking along, minding my own business, and the next there's this freaky green bug down my shirt, stinging the crap out of me. Mike got a kick out of me screaming and nearly tearing my shirt off trying to get the stupid thing out.

Anyway, we made it to Esteli, where we found and treated ourselves to Subway sandwiches. Tomorrow we continue our ride south, heading for the enormous Lago de Nicaragua. Check out the Travel Map (linked on the left) if you haven't done so recently -- it almost looks like we're making progress on our bikes.

No Touchy!

After our "Highway of Death" two-day bus trip we were happy to get back on our bikes for a bit. On Tuesday we set off from Guaimaca heading west. The scenery was quite pretty and Mike said that it reminded him of Montana. We were in the mountains winding along roads lined with pine trees. It was slightly overcast which meant that we weren't dripping sweat as usual. It made for a pleasant morning ride, and we reached a town called Talanga about midday.



A wall guarding a bunch of pine trees. We've seen several really fancy, elaborate walls seemingly in the middle of nowhere, guarding nothing much. Mike thinks that the owners spend so much on the walls they don't have enough left over for the house.

Mike was having problems with his tire (it had a small gash in it and would not hold air for long), so we patched the tube again and busted out one of the brand new tires to boot. The locals got a kick out of us and even helped out by contributing a heavy-duty patch for the tube -- gratis (free)! It was still early in the afternoon and I was feeling good, so I convinced Mike that we should press on.

The second half of the day led us down a dirt road which was also quite pretty. I can't get over the weird mix of vegetation in Honduras, though. You can look across a field and see pine trees growing next to corn, growing next to banana trees, growing next to sugar cane. It's a strange assortment. And all of this next to a quaint mud house accented by the colorful laundry drying in the sun. The whole scene is complete once you see the donkeys and chickens and dogs and children running everywhere. Mike really liked photographing the mud houses. With the gravel roads and the great photo ops, we barely made it into Villa de San Francisco before dark, but once there we found a pretty decent hotel for the night.



One of those cute mud houses.



One with laundry.



A cowboy on a donkey.



Some nice scenery.



Silly kids! Put those bellies away!



We heard about a couple bikers who were chased down and sprayed by a crop duster. Gross!

Yesterday we biked over some good-sized hills to get to Danli -- our last stop before heading to Nicaragua. Again, the scenery was pretty cool, but by the end of the day we were ready for the hills to end. We decided to stay in Danli an extra day so that we could restock some of our waning supplies and so that I could get caught up with my teaching duties. Tomorrow we cross yet another border, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Nicaragua has in store for us. As of now we don't have a guide book at all, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. At least we have a map!



The lifesaver beer! A popular choice in Honduras, and the sponsor of this soccer field.

I thought I'd add a few more items to our list of irksome things. It helps me vent my frustrations. So, here goes:

4) Non-fitted bed sheets. It's rare that you will find a bed with fitted sheets in any of the hotels we visit. This wouldn't be a problem if Mike weren't such a restless sleeper. Inevitably the sheets get bunched up, often revealing a pretty natty-looking mattress.

5) Litter bugs. Pretty much all of the countries we have visited have a trash problem. There just aren't proper dumps for all of the garbage produced, and what's more, the locals plain don't give a shit. Growing up with the "give a hoot, don´t pollute" slogan (among others), this seems an unpardonable offense. The roads are lined with garbage thrown from vehicles, and the towns aren't much better. Good luck finding a public garbage can. What's worst of all, perhaps, is the fact that the locals laugh at us when we tuck a recently finished bottle of pop or a candy wrapper into our bags to carry with us until we can find a trash can. They always shake their heads and tell us to just throw it where we stand. Gross.

6) Remote controls and caged TVs. I guess people who visit Central American hotels like to run off with the technology. More often than not, when we have a hotel room with a TV, it is locked in place or sometimes even caged up like a dangerous animal. The bars in front of the screen can make it difficult to see what's going on. Also, the hotels always keep the remotes with the keys and hand them to you when you pay for a room. I imagine they do this so that the remotes don't grow legs and escape along with the TVs. Problem is, they almost never give you a remote that goes with the TV in that room. It's usually a different brand and won't work at all. *Sigh*

7) Unauthorized spankings. I've grown accustomed to the kissy faces that I get when biking down the road, but I was livid when someone had the gall to spank me the other day. I'm biking along, minding my own business, when a guy on a motorcycle gives me a good smack on the ass. First of all, my balance isn't that great and I could have fallen off, and second of all, excuse me! No touchy! Mike offered to beat him up, but he was long gone on his fancy motorized vehicle.

8) Painted propaganda. Politicians, religious groups, and business all use the natural beauty of their country to further their own purposes. Trees and rocks often fall victim to painted-on slogans. A good way to ruin a nice view.



One rock wall covered with propaganda.

Now for some of our favorite things:

1) Plantains con crema. A plantain is a small banana-like fruit, for those of you who didn't know. They're especially yummy when fried up and served con crema (with a yogurt-like cream).

2) Bolsas de agua. We go through a lot of water when we're biking in this weather, and unlike RAGBRAI there aren't convenient fill stations. We can't just find a drinking fountain or fill up in our hotels, since the water is definitely not safe for drinking. Luckily, we've discovered the joys of buying water by the bolsa. Bolsa is the Spanish word for purse, though these packages more closely resemble a ziplock baggie without the ziplock. The bolsa is just a plastic pouch of water. What's great about it is that it is very cheap (about $.10 for a half-liter), it produces less waste than a bottle, and it fits anywhere in our bags. Plus it can easily be used to cool off.

I have many more favorites, but I'm getting tired of typing, so I'll save them for later...

One last thing: The answer to the latest poll is actually 165 feet -- not that I expected anyone to know that. It took me long enough to figure it out and I have all the necessary charts. I'll try to come up with a more entertaining poll for next time.