Playa Carmen Hotel Mal Pais

... we got to Puntarenas, it looked like the shopping was about a mile from the ferry and we didn’t want to spend that long walking to the ferry. So, we went and got in line for the ferry. Once again, this was a time when it was so nice to have Oscar with us as he knew exactly what to do. We parked in the line of cars waiting for the ferry, after we had been there awhile maybe an hour before the ferry left, a man came by and gave us a ticket for our ...

... is Mexico..... What can I say? It firmly remains top of the list by far. It has the jaw dropping scenery which varies from lush jungle, barren desert, mountain and volcano peaks to an underground network of cenotes. Its cities and towns rock. They are alive, beautiful and have culture, both old an new, you would expect from any European city. The people are the friendliest I have ever met and the food the consistently tastiest. There is a sense of fun and ...

... Always something, but again my photo uploading is not working right now so i will have to try again to show all the successful fishermen i am. maybe next trip to panama in a week or so. well photos are coming and maybe a few more crazy stories, hard time coming to the computer instead of finding adventures (including beach liming)... see you next year. Next stop bocas panama!

... with the celestial beings of Playa Grande, I'll be happy to update this. For lunch we went to Sano Banano. They have a nice patio out back and a great menu. I had a Mahi Mahi Sandwich that was excellent and our server had a great personality. BTW, tipping is more rounding up the bill, but we've been doing about 10%. Also, there is a 10% tax on all restaurant food. ****Just a word about Sano Banano and ...

... does not have is ATM machines, and that was a bit of a problem for us as we were unable to get any money out in Monteverde. Fortunately we brought a bunch of american money with us (which serves as a secondary currency down here), but we didn´t want to burn it all in the first week of our trip, so we found out we could bus to a town 30 minutes away (7 km, I kid you not) where they had a bank and an ATM. So we went .. and came back with nothing. The ATM ...

... and drove it to Montezuma, which was fantastic fun, and it was really pretty driving back along the coast road. We also visited the Montezuma waterfalls, which had a really steep climb to the top, Amy decided she couldnt go any further when we reached the top as you had to hang on some rope in order to not fall off. Amy made it unscathed to the top, but on the way back fell fully ...

... their entire staff on a trip to the beach paradise because a large crew of drinking men were also on board. We managed to but a ticket for an onward bus out to Mal Pais and stowed our packs on the bus whilst on the ferry. This freed us up for beers and vodka on the boat. We met three women on the boat. Mareeka and Carolina from Holland and Cybil, a surfer from Sweden. Finally we all got the bus to Mal Pais checked into Casa Del Mar on the beach ...

... Mr F hasn't got grumpy yet.....still plenty of time yet. Rains gone the past 2 days, suns out, surfs up and lesson is tomorrow. Met the instructor today...no pressure at all..... he said you need to master the balance board ie. balance on a small sur board on a log, otherwise theres no point teaching you. Managed to do it.....must have recognised that 'totem pole Freeman' had done surfing before, as he didn't have to do it!

... there was absolutely no way for us to get back in now and we sat around smoking our cigs rater disillusioned. our wanderer catherine came back with some Americans about 15 minutes later and said we looked hilarious just sitting in front of our room debating if we could just sleep in the hammocks that were around. she took us by hand, one by one and put us each in the other rooms, knocking on the door, even speaking for us, it was just too funny the next day ...

... The next day was excellent surf at playa Marbella 9 k from our house....unfortunately we had to pay "stupid Tax" #2 in full. The first was the extra $25/week for the rental car. Anyway, I met a couple of brazillianos on the beach and they were very pleasant. Earlier Kalen had decided that our boards looked hot in the sun and needed to be under a shade tree 30 feet from us next to the dirt road. He and I went 1k down the ...