TravelStream™ news feed for member casey_matt on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/casey_matt en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:28:44 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1164997740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1164997740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1164997740/tpod.html Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:28:44 -0400 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Caye Caulker, Belize

11/26 - We packed up camp and hit the pavement with our thumbs out. Being sunday there are no buses from here to Belize city, so the only way to go is by the thumb. After a short while waiting on the side of the road with our buddy Fallet using binoculars to look for cars we finally got a pick-up to take us to the next intersection. Here we got another ride with a mom and her kids to the main road were we could get a bus. Pretty easy. The bus came straight away and we were in Belize City before we knew it. We missed a boat by a few minutes so we stashed our pack and headed in town for lunch and a bit of exploring. This was easy because there was nothing open and the streets were pretty much empty, I hate sundays. I need to buy and new sleeping pad because my therma-rest is ruined. It has what I call delamed, the out layer seperated from an inner layer forming a large bubble that is impossible to sleep on. The boat ride to Caye Caulker was fast and smooth, nothing like Bucks wild ride. It started to rain a bit so a large tarp was passed over us to protect us from the rain. The island is real mellow with 1 main road and a bunch of lesser roads all hard packed sand. Only a few cars on the island so golf cart is the mode of transport for those who don't like to walk or ride bikes. Have we mentioned that cruiser bikes are the biggest fad down here, it seems like everyone has one. After doing our usual walking around searching for a place to stay we settled on the Happy Lobster, nice room with a fan and a shared balcony. It was still raining so we played some cards and drank a beer on the balcony with a fellow traveler. Once it stopped raining we went out to explore the town and find some food. So far this island seems very cool, so relaxed and beautiful.11/27 - Today was a chill day of errands and beach. Did some laundry at a coin op laundrymat. Walked to the south end of the island, and long the way stopped at the mini reserve. This really was mini but cool, its good to see that they protect some lands and don't build on all of it. It was a beautiful walk along the ocean and mangroves. There is no real beach here on Caye Caulker, the popular 'beach' hang out is at a crumbling concret bridge. It was a bit crowded so we found a nice spot to chill, read, and sunbath. We moved to stay in the sun a few times and ended up out on a pier. This was really the best spot of the day, a great place to swim and chill, with views of the town. Most of the beaches have sea grass right off shore, not the most fun to swim in. But out here of the dock it was clear. Watched an amazing sunset from here. Dinner was not the best and we booked a tour for the morning. Should be great.11/28 - Before our tour we chilled near the water, its so nice to be so relaxed. Our tour was with a company called Ragamuffin and was a sailboat and snorkle tour. This was a great day, lots of fresh fruit, great weather and great snorkling. We had three differents stops to snorkle at. The first was called Elk horn reef and had some cool coral formations that looked like yup you guessed it elk antlers. The second stop was Shark and ray alley. Yup here we got to snorkle with nurse sharks and large rays. The guide even held a ray that we got to pet. There were not as many sharks as we were hoping for but it was way cool none the less. It is so amazing to watch the rays fly through the water, they are so graceful. After this stop we had lunch as we sailed to the the third stop. This was the best stop of the day, called Hol Chan. This is a natural channel in the reef. We swam up one side of the channel along a coral wall crossed of the channel and swam along the other side. The coral here was the biggest we have seen with large fish to go with it. There were some grouper that were at least 3 or 4 feet. Wow. Our guide Charlie fed a moray eel so we got to see it come out and swim instead of just the usual sighting of its head. The sail back was great as well, they served lots of rum punch. That might be what made it so fun. Charlie our guide and captain let me sail for a bit while he went and got a drink. When he took over again we chatted with him the rest of the way back to Caye Caulker. Very cool and interesting local garifuna guy who spent his life on the water. We got back just in time to see the sun set behind the island as we pulled into port. What a great day and we didn't even get sunburned. We ate dinner on the street at a small bbq which was great. We really like it here but tomorrow we must move on, there are other beach towns waiting for us!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1173971460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1173971460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1173971460/tpod.html Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:47:44 -0400 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Pacuare Reserve, Costa Rica

Hey all sorry its been a while, but things have been busy and I have no Internet when I am living now.I have been at the Pacuare Reserve for 2 weeks now, Casey spent the 1st week there with me and then went off to training for EPI. Life is simple and good.Let me tell you a bit about the place. It is set on a 6km stretch of black sand beach adjacent to a rain forest. It is beautiful. Our living conditions are simple, shared bathroom and showers, no electricity and a common dinning area with a cook. As of now I have my own room which Casey when at the reserve can share with me, but I may get a roommate soon. Once the sun goes down it is candle power. The food is good our cook Anna can do wonders with rice and beans. There is little meat and lots of vegi´s and like I said rice and beans with EVERY meal. The only difference being for breakfast they are mixed together (gallo pinto). The work is mostly at night during our nightly patrols. This consists of us walking the beach looking for turtles. Right now we are doing the whole stretch of beach totaling 11km every night. Patrols leave at 9pm and 12am and can last from 4 to 7 hours depending on how many turtles we come across. When we ind a Letherback turtle we watch her start to nest and then either count the eggs as she is laying them or catch them in a sack to relocate them to a new nest to protect them from the sea or poachers. While they are covering there nest we check for tags if there are none we tag her. This is a metal tag that we put in her rear flipper kinda like giving her earing. We then measure her length and width and check for damages. After she has returned to the sea we try our best to camouflage the nest to make it more difficult for poachers to find. It is amazing working so closely with such a beautiful animal, they can be as big as 165cm long. It is an amazing sight watching these turtles come to land and return to the sea. The other night I left on the 12am patrol and returned to the base at 7:30 in the morning. I have taken to napping during the day and after dinner, every little hour helps. The days have been mostly maintenance work and reading and learning about turtles. I have learned a ton. Leatherback are truly fascinating creatures. Another duty we share is to do a morning conteo (track count) We walk the beach at 5:30am looking for any tracks we may have missed in the night and to see if there is any signs of poaching. Sometimes we have to do this after a night on patrol. and some days we do both conteo and patrol on the same day which makes for a 22km day, about 13 miles. In the 2 weeks I have been there I have easily walked over 100 miles. We also have a trail in the forest which is very cool. I have seen howler, spider, and white face monkeys, an ant eater, a sloth, a tyra, some poison dart frogs and cool lizards. The monkeys are a daily occurrence. There are 2 other research assistants (thats what I am) one Lucy is from england and is weird, annoying and I worry about her ability to work with a group of students in the field. The other Sylvia is form Spain and she is very nice but has little English. We try our best to talk to each other with our limited vocab which makes for interesting conversations. I am the only one with little Spanish skills and this can make most meals and some other times very lonely as conversations are mostly in Spanish. I get snid bits hear and there but enough. Some is translated for me but most just goes the way of fast conversations and meal time chatter.This might be the hardest part about being here. Of the 2 research assist. Sylvia is the only one I would be friends with but we can´t have real conversations yet. My 2 bosses Ramon and Tomas are great guys, they both speak English but force my Spanish most of the time. I am learning slowly.. Things are good but as usual I have my ups and downs, but they mostly seem to be up. When I do get down if we see a turtle that night I feel much better.Anyway I hope that gives you a insight to what I am doing for the next 4 months. If you want to see more about the Reserve check here .... http://www.play-costa-rica.com/costa-rica-sea-turtles.html I will be able to check email probably twice a month when I get to go to town to help with the shopping, so I would love to hear from everyone in the outside world. Sorry if I don´t write back.Well... miss ya allMatt
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171596060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171596060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171596060/tpod.html Sat, 17 Feb 2007 22:56:05 -0500 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Corn Islands, Nicaragua

Well I finally know what I will be doing while Casey is saving the world at EPI. I accepted a volunteer position with the Pacuare Nature Reserve. I will be a research assistant with the sea turtle program. It is located near Tortugero NP, right near where Casey will be working. She actually brings students to the reserve where I will be working. I get room and board and Casey gets to come and spend her days off with me, with some volunteer work to cover her room and board while she is there.I will be spending a lot of time walking the beach and watching sea turtles. Should be great! I am very excited for this new experiance. That being said it is near the end of the first half of our time abroad. We have been traveling for about 20 weeks now and we have about 1 week left before I need to report to the Reserve for work. I can´t believe that our travels are almost over. The time has gone by so fast but it seem like forever ago that we landed in Mexico. We have been to and seen so many wonderful places it is hard to believe. The 2nd half of our trip is the work phase and we both have good jobs to look forward to.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171768320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171768320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171768320/tpod.html Sat, 17 Feb 2007 22:53:47 -0500 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Masaya, Nicaragua

text to come...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171591500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171591500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1171591500/tpod.html Sat, 17 Feb 2007 22:53:16 -0500 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Big and Little Corn Island, Nicaragua

The journey begins on the 6th when we left Leon for the capital city Managua. We bought our bus and boat ticket to get us as far as Bluefields, stored our bags and headed to the Metro Centro to wait for our 9pm departure. Entering the mall was like stepping back into the USA, this mall is big and expensive. Probably the most expensive place we have been in Central America. Did some email and headed to the food court for lunch. Subway was our choice after turning down BK, McDs, and other fastfood chains. We then went to see a movie 'Little Miss Sunshine.' It was good, depressing and hilarious at the same time. Back to the fabulous food court for dinner before our taxi ride back to the terminal to get our bus. It was a real bus with reclining seats which was a nice change from the chicken buses. 7 hours later after many pee stops we arrived in Rama at 4am. Casey slept a bit but I did not. When the sun came up we left Rama in a speed boat for and 1.5 hour ride down the river to Bluefields. Here we got our tickets and got on the boat to the Corn Islands. Once we were settled in and had claimed a place to sit, we were all kicked of the boat so they could read names off the passenger list one by one to let people back on the boat, very efficient. This ride was a bit choppy and having no sleep did not help any, it was a long 5 hour ride across the sea. The locals just spread themselves out on the deck and slept the whole way, I don't know how they do it. Finally 17 hours after we left Managua we were in paradise! Our hotel was sweet, facing the beach with a huge balcony overlooking the ocean. Got a good lunch and explored the main town and relaxed at our room since we were both exhasted. The next day we had a relaxing morning before snorkling right from our beach. The water was super clear and the colors were vibrant. We saw a spotted eagle ray. After swimming around the reef for awhile we took a walk in which we circomnavigated the whole island, with a stop at long bay for some good beach time. The locals on the island are very friendly and the island has a very relaxed feel 'the carribean way of life'.  The next morning we went over to Nautalis Dive shop to get our gear, meet our divemaster, and go diving. In less than 10 minutes we were at our dive site with only 5 of us on the boat we were in the water and exploring the reef in no time.We spent about an hour at 60 feet swimming over amazing corals. It was a sunny day so the colors were amazing. It was a great dive even though we saw nothing big. After the surface interval we went to our second site, this time we saw some rays and a nurse shark sleeping on the bottom. Another great dive, these dives were a bit different than in the Bay Islands but we are definitely hooked on diving. Back on land we played some cards over drinks and then cooked some dinner and relaxed on our balcony for the evening. The 10th was another snorkle day. We snorkled off the deck of a restaurant over the water. It was a great snorkle with a huge bariccuda being the highlight. Afterwards we chilled on the deck enjoying a horrible local beer with amazing vistas of the ocean. The colors of the waters are so beautiful, all different shades of blue. Our next stop today was Picnic Center Beach, a super clean, white sand beach with no waves. The ocean was as calm as a swimming pool and just as warm. It was tough but we managed to spend the rest of the day chillin on the beach. It was another great day in island paradise. The 11th was a baseball day. Yes baseball, apperently it is very popular in Nicaragua even way out here on the island. On our walk over to the field we chatted with a player and he filled us in on the days events. The first game was an old timers game, all the players were old dudes who had played in the 70s and 80s, this was a funny game. Some in jeans, most with potbellies, and one who was barefoot. The second game was the real one and a championship game. It was fun to watch a baseball game and listen to the locals yell to the players and get real excited about the game. I had to explain how the game of baseball works to Casey and she eventually got way in to the game. We had to leave the game early to catch our boat over to Little Corn Island. This was a quick calm ride. We walked to the far side of the island and settled into a small bamboo walled cabin with a shower and toilet but no sink, go figure. A quick jump in the ocean before cooking some dinner and relaxing on our porch. The hotel called Cool Spot is just that, very cool. The cabins are all crazily painted with pokadots and weird decorations. But its right on the water. The 12th was a relaxed day. We explored town and the island which is a lot smaller than Big Corn. Town is basically a sidewalk with some hotels and tiendas intermixed with homes. No cars on the island just lots of bikes and wheelbarrows.  We walked the beach back to 'Cool spot' and got some beach chairs and relaxed on the beach with a snorkle just to stir things up a bit.  Another great day!I know this is getting redundant but what else is there to do on a small island. The 13th we spent on our poarch reading. This was a do nothing day because it was Casey's turn to be sick.The 14th was probably the best snorkle day yet. We decided to go on a boat snorkle trip instead of just swimming out from shore. The water was a bit deeper than where we usually snorkle but the visibility was great. We swam over the coral and sandy patches for a bit longer than an hour. The waves were pretty big but not rough. During this session we saw around 10 nurse sharks, and eagle ray, a sting ray, barricuda, a sea turtle and some fish we had never seen before. WOW! what a great snorkle. There were also divers in the water below us, it was cool to watch them from above as well. My parents asked which we like better snorkling or diving. I think they are so different and similar at the same time it is hard to compare. They are both amazing. The afternoon was spent on the north side of the island chilling on the beach and snorkling form the shore. Walked the beach back to Cool Spot to clean up before our Valentines Day date. We had dinner at a fancy restauant that was so over decorated for valentines day it was sick. Casey had shrimp and I had an African dish called Mofi, it was very good. We actually stayed out past 10pm and chatted with some other travelers we met.  The 15th we said a sad goodbye to the Corn Islands as we retraced our long journy back to Managua. This time however the boat ride was calm and we had to overnight in Rama before getting the bus back to the capital city. The journey to get there and back was definitely worth the long travel days and rough boat rides to spend a week in island paradise.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1170727560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1170727560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1170727560/tpod.html Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:24:38 -0500 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Granada, Nicaragua

It was a short travel day to arrive in Granada from Leon, from one colonial city to another. Walking to the Hospedaje Cocibolca, we crossed the center square dominated by a huge cathedral and down a beautifully restored street of colonial buildings. The charm of Leon pales in comparison to Granada, and consequentially the number of tourists here is greatly magnified. We spent the afternoon exploring the downtown area, checking out old churches (just from the outside, we never venture in), bookstores, and other hostels with info bulletin boards to scope our options out. The evening was cooking pasta in the hotel's kitchen, catching up on email, basically nothing exciting as usual. The next morning we got an early start on the day, treating ourselves to a great breakfast at "Nica Buffet" run by an eccentric Danish guy. Then we caught a bus out of town to the entrance of Volcan Mombacho nature reserve. We paid a steep fee for entrance and transport to the top of the reserve where the four craters lie and another steep fee for the mandatory guide to hike on the clearly marked hazard free trails. Because Mombacho has been long extinct, it is covered in cloud forest, but the trail was a great mixture of walking in the orchid and bromeliad filled forest and popping out at miradors to get views of other volcanoes, crater lakes, Granada, and even the distant Isla Ometepe on the other end of Lago Nicaragua. Our little kid of a guide, Alfredo, was actually quite amazing with his botanical knowledge and spouted off scientific names for every plant he pointed out to us. We got a ride back down to the highway in the back of the park's pickup and returned to Granada. That evening we "lowered ourselves" to hanging out at Granada's trendiest youth hostel in order to watch the movie they were showing that night, Thank You for Smoking. What we didn't know until we got there, was that it would be playing in a crowded, hot storage room and (predictably considering the movie) everyone would be lighting up in that air tight oxygen deprived windowless space. Even so it was nice to chill out watching a movie. Our third day in Granada was a day trip to a pristine crater lake called Laguna Apoyo where we did a little sea kayaking, sun bathing, and swimming and went out to dinner at a mexican restaurant full of travelers closely following the superbowl. Today was a pretty mellow day all and all. We walked along Granada's neglected Centro Turistico along the shores of Lake Nicaragua and wondered why it wasn't a more happening place, sipped refrescos from the kiosks in the center square while catching up on our journals, and the usual running of errands after that. Granada has a good feel to it and we enjoyed our time here resting up before a long overland and oversea haul to the Corn Islands on Nicaragua's Carribean side.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1170374220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1170374220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1170374220/tpod.html Thu, 01 Feb 2007 20:51:32 -0500 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Leon, Nicaragua

We had another long travel day from the capital of Honduras, crossing the border, and arriving in Leon in the late afternoon, feeling it get progressively hotter the closer we got. We checked in to our second-choice hostel (ViaVia - no kitchen), since the one we were aiming for right across the street was full (Bigfoot - with kitchen). Famished, we ate a snack at the hostel before setting out to see the historical cathedrals basking the warm light of sunset. The next day was very chill. We slept in, ate a late breakfast, and moved across the street to Bigfoot. We wandered through the central plaza and down some of the calmer streets farther from the center, better understanding why Leon has such an appeal to foreigners with its deteriorating and worn but still beautiful colonial feel. We sat in a trendy cafe through the stifling hot afternoon and caught up in our journals, then went to the market to buy fruits and veggies and the (air-conditioned!) supermarket for the rest of our dinner supplies, cooking up pasta and chicken back at the hostel. Day three was a day trip to the gorgeous completely litter-free beach named Las Peñitas for the sporadic rock outcrops that the surf crashes into during high tide. We practically had the beach to ourselves to top it off. The next morning, we were up early to meet our guides and hiking group over breakfast at the Quetzaltrekkers office. Another branch of the organization in Guatemala that we did a trip with way back when, Quetzaltrekkers (www.quetzaltrekkers.org) leads trips up various volcanoes in the Leon area and all of the profits support another group helping streetkids. After breakfast, we packed our bags and headed out to the bus station with our guides, Taylor and Janine, and two Swiss women, Claudia and Nadia. We rode a crowded (duh) chicken bus to San Jacinto to start our hike but first checked out some boiling mud pots that looked enticingly similar to Willy Wonka´s chocoate river. We could see our distant destination of Volcan Telica as we began hiking up a hot dusty road that gave way to a hot dusty trail. This part of the country is different from any we have experienced thus far because it is so hot and dry, but not parched. There is still green in the landscape, fruit trees growing, and flowers blooming. After a particularly steep and stifling stretch of overgrown trail, we stopped to rest and eat lunch in a flat area, part of the ancient perimeter of Telica´s crater. It was just another short climb up and over a ridge to our campspot, a grassy field that looked artifically planted and conveniently sheltered from the constant wind. We set up camp at the base of the cone leading up to the current crater, then scrambled up a scoria field to peer over the rim. It was shockingly deep at 120 meters and dizzying to stand at the edge of the sheer drop off. The sulferous fumes burned our nose and made us cough, but we have never had so much fun hurling rocks into the giant cavity. After always telling students in our field groups with KSS that they couldn´t throw rocks under any circumstances, we were hypocritically quite entertained with counting the seconds until it hit with an explosion of powder far below. We relaxed back at camp for while, then went to a great viewing spot for the sun setting into the Pacific with brillant clouds streaking across the sky. We returned to camp for dinner around a campfire and dessert of roasted marshmallows, a first for the Swiss girls. Our last excursion from camp was back up to the crater to see lava glowing since Telica is still active, a minor eruption occuring the week before. Unfortunately, with a lot of smoke coming out of the crater and the strong moonlight reflecting off of that smoke, we could barely make out a tiny dim red glow at the deepest point of the crater, but the night sky was beautiful. We had a second dessert of "picos" (Nicaraguan sweet bread) warmed on the rocks of the campfire ring, then as always with camping, went to bed early. The next morning, we ate breakfast and packed up camp, then did the same hike down to San Jacinto where we ate lunch in a comedor blasting 80s hits sung in Spanish. For the first time in Central American history, we are sure, we witnessed a bus too full to take on more passengers. There was simply no space to cram more people in to, so we waited for the next and only slightly less crowded one to return to Leon. We had decided to do another trek with Quetzaltrekkers, but they couldn´t run it for a couple of days, so we headed back to Las Peñitas beach in the meanwhile. We arrived filthy and sweaty to Hotelito Oasis (sadly) just after sunset, cleaned ourselves up, ate dinner and relaxed in their breezy second-story palapa (open air thatched roofed hut) until bed. As much as we enjoy our days on the beach, there is really not much to elaborate about them. Sunbathing, reading, eating, and the occasional stroll looking for shells for two days was the routine. One thing of note though is that after four months of beach visits, Matt finally has a distiguishable tan despite obsessively reapplying sunscreen all day. I also learned the hard way that crab claws can puncture the skin. Not expecting to actually be fast enough to grab it, I chased one down and reached for a big blue one, which promptly attached itself to my index finger until I screamed and shook it in to the sea. Anyhow, we returned to Leon for our next trek to Volcan Cosiguina. This trip rarely goes because it takes three days--two days of travel for one day of hiking--but we thought it was worth it in the end. Again, we met our guides Hannah and Erwin over breakfast and sorted out our gear. Then it was all day in chicken buses going through very rural areas where just the simplist of huts line the road, until we reached the Gulf of Fonseca. We set up camp on the black sand beach with views of volcanoes across the bay in El Salvador as well as Honduras. We rejoiced to wash off the grime in the ocean, eat a late lunch, then wander down the beach to an artistic looking forest of dead trees. The sunset was beautiful as usual, and in keeping with tradition, we had dinner and roasted marshmallows around a driftwood campfire. Up early for a granola breakfast, we packed up our belongings for safekeeping at a nearby store while we hiked. The trail was not as dusty, steep, or long as Telica and soon we were peering in to the crater, filled with a tantalizing blue-green lake at the base of the steep walls far below. So close, and yet so far away. We had far-reaching views, although hazey from many brush fires burning in Nicaragua, as we walked part of the rim of the crater before heading back down. A random dog adopted us and followed us for the entire hike up and down, then trotted off to his house as we passed by it on the return. They prepared dinner for us at the house where we left our bags, which we ate while watching all the local boys carrying on a rowdy and fast-paced checker tournament. Some of the kids followed us down to the beach and watched our every move as we set up camp again. We ended up playing cards with them for a while as more and more kids showed up with curiosity about the travellers on the beach. Just before we were supposed to get up the next day at 5:30am, Matt and I watched our first ever moonset over the golf. The moon glowed red, like a sunset but not as bright. Very cool. We caught a bus to a nearby town with a warm, clear spring that we soaked in before eating "pinto gallo" (beans and rice) at a little comedor. Then began the long bus journey in reverse. We were happy when we arrived in Leon and checked in to our third different hostel in the city (for some reason, there is a plethora of good hostels here...). We were planning on leaving the next morning, but heard about some of the Quetzaltrekkers volunteers making plans to tour the Flor de Caña rum factory the next day. We decided to stay and go with them, so the next day we took a bus out to the factory and waited for a long time at the gate until the security guards decided we weren´t going to be discouraged and let us in. We had an interesting overview of the distilling process, seeing the vats where fermentation was happening, the white oak barrels aging rum for up to 18 years, and my favorite part, the semi-automated bottling line. What really blew us away was that for their extra big or extra small bottles, they have workers gluing the labels on one at a time by hand! For some reason, I am always fascinated by assembly lines in factories...We ended the tour with a tasting session and all agreed that the special reserve aged 18 years was amazingly smooth, not that any of us were big rum experts, but it was good! So after quite a while in the Leon area, we are anxious to see other parts of Nicaragua with our few remaining weeks of travel and will be heading next to Leon´s historically rival city Granada.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1169342040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1169342040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1169342040/tpod.html Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:11:00 -0500 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Utila, Honduras

After our wonderful day yesterday (not really) we decided to get out of La Ceiba and go to Utila in the Bay Islands. We got an early taxi to the ferry with a French Canadian (FC from now on) for the hour long ride across the water. We didn´t like the FC from the beginning and steered clear of him when we got to the island. The ride was a bit bumpy but not bad. Stepped of the boat to a hoard of people trying to get us to go to their dive shop. "Come with us we´re the best" "We have the best rooms" and so on. We stashed our bags and went exploring on our own for a dive shop right for us. We actually only checked out 2 of the 15 or so on the island. We ended up at the Bay Island College of Diving, this was recommended to us from some friends. (Thanks Dan and Kim). We settled into a great room in a 3 bedroom apartment with a kitchen and set out for lunch, beach time and groceries. The beach was great, very calm and warm clear water. Back at the room we found that we had new roommates, a different french Canadian and 2 others, but also hanging out with them was the annoying FC! They were so loud and drunk already that I didn´t think I could last a week with them as roommates. Of all the  places to stay on the island, how did they end up in our apartment? it was uncanny and very bad luck. Anyway we decided to move down the road to a different apartment also with a kitchen and a nicer balcony. Now we were set, no annoying FC.  The next day we set out to do some snorkeling before our first scuba class started. We walked down the length of the island to where we heard there was a good reef. We got to where we though it was but it didn´t seem right and the entry looked unfriendly, so discouraged we gave up and headed back with our heads low, it was another botched attempt at free fun. Not to mention that was the last time we saw Casey's nalgene water bottle. The morning being a wash, we went back to the apt for lunch and did some reading for our class. We took a class to get certified with a Open Water Certification. The first class was 3 hours of watching a super cheesy video of the material we just read. For those of you that are red cross certified you know the type of cheese I am talking about. Topher, our instructor, was a real great guy, laid back, and a good teacher. This morning I made some really bad pancakes, yes its true, I ruined just add water pancakes. But I blame it on the pan and the lack of butter. Then it was back to the videos for the morning, wahoo! After our lunch break the fun began, we learned how to set up and take apart our scuba gear and then got into our wet suits. This part of our confined water skills took place in a pool, this was a nice way to ease into breathing underwater. We practiced alot of skills like removing our mask and putting it back on, purging our regulator and floating under water. So much fun, but we couldn´t wait to get out into the ocean. After the pool we took our final written exam up on the roof deck. There are only 2 others in our class with us, a couple from Sweden, and the woman seemed a bit nervous today. Today we got to sleep in a bit and have a relaxed morning, Casey made up for my failed pancakes yesterday by making some great french toast this morning.(she had butter). Before lunch we did some more skills with Topher but this time in the ocean right of the shore. It was a bit different than in the pool, the buoyancy was different. But it was way cooler even though we were just on a sandy bottom with nothing to look at. The experience of being under the water and breathing is so cool, and weird at first with the noise of the bubbles and the feel of all the gear. After a quick break we loaded the dive boat for the first time, very exciting. The first part of this dive was all skills, during which the other girl in our class had to surface a few times because she was either sick or nervous. But we did get to follow Topher around the reef for a short swim. Our depth on this dive was 35 ft. Topher likes to be the first in the water at a dive site so we were suited up and ready to jump in as soon as we got there, we were also the last ones back on the boat. The water was a bit choppy today but once we were under the water I barely noticed. During our required surface interval time to allow for some nitrogen to leave our bodies we moved to our second dive site of the afternoon. This time the Swede's did not join us in the water since they were not feeling well, this just left Topher and us. Again we did some skills at the bottom also at 35ft. and then had lots of time to explore the reef. We saw loads of cool fish and beautiful coral and a ray swam right past us. Topher led us through a narrow passage in the reef called a swim through, very cool. It really is an amazing feeling being suspended in the water and floating effortlessly along the coral. The reef here is a wall so we swam along the wall getting real close but not touching the coral. Climbing back on to the boat is a shock after a half hour or so of being weightless, the shock of gravity was overwhelming. It was an awesome day! I think I'm getting addicted!  Another relaxing morning before getting on the boat for the last 2 dives of our course. But before we could go we had to take a swim test to make sure we knew how to swim. Never mind that we already went out with him on 2 dives. We swam while Topher sat on the dock and watched. Our first dive of the day was to 60ft. Very cool, we did a few more skills and then got to explore to reef. This is the max depth we are certified for. It is a very cool feeling being so deep and looking up at the reef wall climbing towards the surface. Our second dive of the day was to about 50ft. and this was pretty much all exploration. We saw a baby trunk fish which is apparently a big deal and a ton of other super neat fish. When we got back on the boat we were certified divers!! Go us! We went out to dinner to celebrate, we ate at a Italian restaurant that specializes in home made pasta. I know what your thinking why eat pasta out when that is all we make at home, well there were not too many choices this night. For some reason most places were closed.Today is our fun dive day! We went on the morning boat with hopes of going to the North side of the island for a chance to see a whale shark, but the windy weather kept us on the south side. But we had to great dives. On the fist dive we saw a hawksbill sea turtle eating on the bottom of the reef. We were about 20ft above it but saw it clearly. This made Casey´s day. On our second dive we saw a 5ft barracuda swimming around, also a spiny lobster. Diving is so great! We spent the afternoon on the beach.Today we rented a kayak and paddled through a mangrove channel to the other side of the island. The northside finally! Along the way we saw a ton of crabs and some blue herons. Once one the other side we were in a calm cove and parked our kayak on an island out in the middle of the cove. From here we did some great snorkeling all around this shallow reef. Casey found and accidentally scared a nurse shark, no worries, it swam off pretty quick and they are not dangerous anyway. Had some lunch on the island and took in the amazing views. Casey got back in to snorkel while I got in the kayak and followed her around chillin in the boat. The paddle home was easy enough. On the way back we saw an eagle ray swim below us. While paddling home we decided we liked life to much here on the island that we decided to stay one more day. We were back on our game and things were going great. Its always a good feeling to get out and do some exciting exploring on our own. Our last day on the island we woke to a rain storm. Of course. We had a relaxing morning with some American TV and french toast. By the late morning the rain had stopped so we headed to the beach for some more snorkeling. Today we saw a group of 5 squid swimming along. They are so crazy looking, like a space ship from some sci-fi movie. Casey also spotted a cow fish which is real cool because it changes color to blend in with the surroundings. We swam around for over an hour or so before chilling on the beach until the sun went down. Said our goodbyes to Topher and got ready to get the early morning boat back to the main land. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1169596560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1169596560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1169596560/tpod.html Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:57:14 -0500 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Tegucigalpa, Honduras

After an early morning boat ride from Utila to the mainland, we took a taxi to the luxury bus line for the long trip to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. We have been making a point to avoid capital cities thus far in our travels since neither of us care for big cities, but it was a necessary stop to get to Nicaragua. The bus experience was hilarious for us, being the first time that we have taken a nice bus since Mexico, but this bus far exceeded the term "1st class". First of all, when we walked into the ticket office the armed security guard asked us to remove our hats because of the security cameras. We were asked to show our passports at the ticket counter, then again when we were boarding the bus. We checked our baggage with tags and a claim number to be stowed below and they strictly enforced a very small "carry on" bag size, which they searched (but still missed my pocket knife!) along with a pat down to make sure we had no pistols tucked in to our pants. Once on the bus in our assigned seats, we joked about having to keep our seatbacks and tray tables in an upright position for take off. An hour in to the trip, the flight attendant...oops I mean BUS attendant...came around with drinks and cookies before starting the in-flight movie...oops I mean in-transit movie. Did I mention it was air-conditioned? In the end, we decided that the luxury and convenience was quite worth paying double or triple the price. Even if it was a more relaxing day, it didn´t save that much time overall. That evening it Tegucigalpa, we dropped our bags in a dorm room since no private rooms were available at the hostel we chose, then ate Kung Pao chicken at a nearby Chinese restaurant while listening to a deafening mariachi band perform for a table of local ladies seated next to us, then early to bed. Trying to avoid two long travel days in a row, we decided to make a day trip to La Tigra National Park outside of the city to hike in the cloud forest. Unfortunately the bus schedule didn´t allow us much time for a serious hike, but it was enough to enjoy the forest and see some really cool woodpeckers with huge red crests. Back in the city, we ate pizza at Little Ceasars (ironic that I´ve never had it in the states?) located right next to the Pizza Hut on the central park block, then did nothing worth mentioning for the rest of the evening. Next stop is Leon, Nicaragua!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1168477800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1168477800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/casey_matt/mexicoandbelow/1168477800/tpod.html Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:41:23 -0500 The Yucatan Peninsula to the Panama Canal in 5 months (if we don't run out of money somewhere in Honduras)

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Tela, Honduras

Our first evening in Tela, a "beach city" in northern Honduras, was no more than shopping around for an affordable hotel, checking out various disappointing book exchanges, and eating dinner at a restaurant oddly called the "Luces del Norte" (Northern Lights) where on their sign is depicted a scene of green blobs over a tropical beach. We liked it so much, we went back for breakfast the next morning, then spent the fabulously hot and sunny day relaxing on the beach. The next morning we were up early for a boat tour of Jeanette Kawas National Park, and it was downpouring. We were dreading going on the tour in the rain and joked about it getting cancelled, and overjoyed when it actually was. Shortly afterwards, it turned into a clear sunny day so instead we rented bikes (in the typical sketchy condition of rental bikes) to get to the recommended Lancetilla Botanical Garden. On the way there, my sandy rusty chain not just fell off but jammed in the rear cogs, which Matt had to seriously yank on to set free. We made it none the less, and wandered around the area in a state of semi-boredom. It was beautiful in a semi-manicured sort of way, but nothing was really gained from the experience. We did however, get to try a crazy fruit called "rambutan" that grows wild in the forest that some girls were selling at the entrance. The bright red hard outer shell, which is peeled off, has bright red thick hairs sprouting off of it. The inside is like a grape with a big hard pit. I think it is one of my favorite fruits, too bad we discovered it at the tag end of its season... From the garden, we biked out  along a coastal dirt road to some Garifuna villages where we had lunch and observed locals going about their everyday life, which in passing is not so different from non-Garifuna villages. It is not like they are constantly drumming and dancing and eating traditional food, so there wasn´t a whole lot to see or even strike up conversation about. "So...you´re Garifuna huh?" Anyhow, it was a beautiful bike ride and our butts really hurt by the time we got back to Tela. We ate dinner, icecream for dessert (there is an icecream shop on almost every corner here in Central America), and spent some time on the internet before heading back to the hotel for the night. The next morning was sunny, so we went on the re-scheduled tour, beginning with an hour long boat ride across the bay to a place called Punta Sal. The larger area is named Jeanette Kawas National Park after an American activist who fought to protect the area from luxury resort development interests and was assassinated in her home by those same interests for her efforts. We went on a disappointingly short hike through the rainforest with the highlight of a couple of howler monkeys asleep high in some trees, and a sheltered lagoon where pirates historically hid out. We had some time to snorkel, but the water had very poor visibility, so that wasn´t so great. Next stop was a fried fish and plantain lunch prepared by one of the two families allowed to live inside the park. Of course, thick clouds covered the sky just when the relaxing-on-the-white-sand-beach portion of the tour came around. We took the hour long boat ride back to Tela and upon arrival it got hot and sunny, perfect beach weather! Another routine evening for Casey and Matt: dinner, icecream, and internet. Our last morning was just packing up and eating breakfast, during which I announced that I really needed to take a break from "desayuno tipico" as I could barely get down another plate of eggs, beans, fresh cheese, and tortillas. And that was our time in Tela, kind of a low point only in that it wasn´t great, but we´re not complaining...really.
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