TravelStream™ news feed for member mikeen on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mikeen en-us Copyright ©2012 TravelPod.com Tue, 06 May 2008 15:20:32 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikeen/mighty07/1199659020/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikeen/mighty07/1199659020/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikeen/mighty07/1199659020/tpod.html Tue, 06 May 2008 19:20:32 +0000 Oh tis far from surfing in Costa Rica I was reared....

Panama - Carnival, Santa Catalina, Bocas Del Toro - Panama, Panama

Panama, Panama

When I think back on my time in Central America, it was about surf, cool sights, and traveling with 6 new characters which we picked up along the way. First of all, we met Johnny Twena in Panama city. Johnny is a signer songwriter fella, who was going to the same spots we were, and we glad to have him. Doug, Ben, and Reid were 3 ozzies that we met in Bocas Del Toro, and they were going the same way as us. Myself and Colin gave them rigorous interviewing in the Mondo Taiti par in Bocas Del Toro, most nights, and they passed the test, and we decided to take them along with us!! Lauren is a happy go lucky chick from LA also, whose also on a round the world tour, and she traveled with us through Panama and then later in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. She was our professional surf photographer for the trip! Mairead O'Donovan, is from Castlefreak, Cork, and we just happened strike up conversation in the pub one night cause I thought she looked like someone from Youghal. Imagine the shock I got when she had an Irish accent, and that she was friends with Rosey, the friend that we had traveled with earlier! Lovely girl, and a good surfer, feicin showed myself and Colin up anyhow! We flew from Cartegena to Panama city, and landed just before Carnival, and the crack was good. We got into this hostel, and got the low down for what was going to happen for Carnival, and got some lovely sounding stories about water fights, late night partying, live music, parades, and other general messing. This sounded good to myself and young Feeley, and we duely celebrated the opening night of carnival. Now, all in all, it was well organized and all that, and there was this massive band stand playing regeton (local music which is a mix of reggae and electronic music), so we sat around drinking alot and dancing and messing with the locals, a nice handy crowd of us now... the crack was good enough, but to be honest it was a bit tame. For carnival like. I was thinkin I'd be coming home when the sun was up with no clothes and soaking wet, and with beads, after a world of divilment, but there was no messin to be honest. So, myself and Colin decide to up the ante a small bit. Now, I'd been falling alot already this night, on purpose, so we spotted a nice handy looking hedge outside of MacDonald's, and over we wander. So Colin rugby tackles me into the hedge, and that went well until we crashed through the hedge, and realized that there was a 4 foot drop behind the hedge to the concrete street.I think we both landed on our heads, I blacked out for a few seconds, and woke to this black girl helping me up off the street, looked over to see Col with blood coming down his forehead. So we were grand after a few minutes, but I say we scared the life out of the poor locals! So myself and Colin, spent the next few days licking our wounds in Panama city, managed to go to the cinema about 3 times, and the only other major achievement of being in Panama city was the fact that we managed to watch Rambo 1, 2, and 3, much to the delight of everyone in the hostel. Here, we met Lauren and Johnny, and we made plans to meet up with them in a few days, somewhere along the road. When we finally got out of Panama city, we headed for Santa Catalina, a famous enough break on the pacific side of Panama. Santa Catalina is a lovely quiet, surf town, which only recently has a paved road leading into it, and boasts a world class reef break which can hold some big waves. Of course myself and Col luckily only saw the small days. We stayed in a hostel with a family of locals who minded the house, and cooked for us too. We got the chance to go snorkeling with the kids, (caught my first fish with a spear! ended up stabbing the fish about 9 times, over a 30 minute period, the poor fella!) and we surfed when we could. Johnny arrived from Panama city to join us, and provided the night time entertainment in the form of his guitar, and it was a lovely few relaxing days down there on the coast. We stayed there for about 8 days, and then made our way to Bocas Del Toro, the more famous break on the Caribbean side of Panama. Bocas Del Toro is a group of Islands, which is renowned for having a few world class point and reef breaks, was our next stop in Panama. Myself, Johnny, and Col arrived there and had plans to meet up with Lauren, our buddy we'd met from Panama city. Now, myself and Colin were a bit raw and tired from the traveling, so we decided to take it easy that night. So we went into the most popular bar there, Mondu Taiti, and decided just to have one, but within about an hour, we were both dressed like women! Yep, Women. Sure we just got caught up in the whole fancy dress night there! That was the start of a very messy few days in Bocas. In bocas, you have to get the boat each time you want to get to the surf breaks, and sometimes this worked out expensive, like for example, Paunch, one of the breaks, was like 4 dollars to get there each, and 4 dollars back, so if your surfing twice a day then it can be expensive. But it was worth it, the waves were very good. It tended to rain from time to time in Bocas too, I remember one day being out in the water, and it rained Hard, it was really cool. Visibility was restricted, and all you could see was the waves coming at you though this haze of rain drops. Hard to describe, but really cool. Lauren came out on the boat with us and managed to get some good shots of us surfing. My first ever shots of myself surfing, sure I was delighted with myself! We met up with these 3 cool ozzies fellas there in Bocas too, got talking to them, seemed like nice fella's so we decided that we would take them under our wing for a while and take them with us to Costa Rica and beyond! So it was like the wizard of oz leaving bocas, our group was growing all the time, we now had Johnny, and the 3 ozzies with us as we headed for Costa Rica.
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Colombia.... Ipiales - Cali - Medallin - Cartagena - Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena, Colombia

So I left Quito at last, said goodbye to Ecuador, and headed once more for Colombia. Feeley was at this stage in Bogota, but having been there already for Christmas, I decided to take another route and meet up with Feeley in the north of Colombia in Cartagena. Feeley had been home for Christmas, and Ed, my other travel buddy was at this stage in Costa Rica I think. I hadn't been surfing now at this stage now for about a month, and I was eager enough to get out of Colombia, and back in the water. Carrying a surfboard around is one thing, but when your not even surfing, it becomes a greater burden. So I crossed the border, again, at this stage nearly being on a first name basis with the Colombian border patrol, started at a border town called Ipiales. Now I wanted to stop here because I heard that there was this cool church built into a canyon down here, so I stopped off for a gander. Cool enough as it was, the walk down and seeing it lit up at night, I was over it fairly quick! So I left that same night and headed for Cali, a town in Colombia where I planned to call in on a few friends of mine who I had met in Ecuador. I stayed there for one night, and the highlight was a trip to the Zoo, which was pretty cool. Nothing much else to say about Cali, nice place, but nothing much to see or do, I just wanted to check out the city, and meet up with my buddy, and then I was fit for road again. Next stop, Medellin, which I was really looking forward to. Medellin was once the most dangerous city in the world, and the place out of where Pablo Escobar ran his drug cartel. But it has since cleaned up its act and has a pile of culture to offer and one who stops in. About an hours drive from Medallin, there's a little colonial town called Santa Fe de Antioquia, Id heard that it was a nice place, so I wandered out there and checked it out. I rented a bike and cycled around for myself for the afternoon. In the evening, I went to check out some arty stuff by the same artist as Bogota, Botero, which was really cool. So all in all I had a jam packed day of touristy stuff, before jumping on the night bus to Cartegena to meet Feeley. Cartegena is a old port town, with all the strong sea walls still in tack surrounding the old part of the city. It really is a beautiful place, and alot safer than other places I´d been in Colombia. I took a good few walks around the town walls, and just got caught up with the whole slow pace of life that the city offers. I spent my days there drinking a pneonimal amount of good coffee, to the point where the street coffee vender Juan that called into our hostel would stand outside my door and keeping saying coffee until I acknowledged him! Gas. Juan, the alarm clock. Meeting up with Feeley again was great, and we duely celebrated him birthday that was 3 weeks earlier in fine style. For a week. I had many morning of waking hungover with my good friend Juan shouting outside my door. We had a good crowd in our hostel, and we met up with Cathal, this Cork lad and his missus Linsey and had great crack with them. Myself and Cathal scared the bejaysus out of the locals with our wild style of hurling escapades along by the beach. Cathal had brought 2 hurleys with him to my delight. Felt strange and great to be pucking a ball after so long away from it. After a weekish, we had enough of Romantic Cartegena, and we flew from Cartegena to Panama city, mad to get back in the water surfing again. There was alot of talks before I left about how dangerous Colombia is, but besides the fact that there are currently 3000 hostages being held for various reasons, and that I nearly was afraid to leave the hostel at times in Bogota for Christmas, I think on the whole it isn't bad, once you mind yourself. I remember poor Lena Ni Mhurichu in Pilz being afraid of me being forced to be a drug runner, and even afterwards Monnie Cliffe saying "I was glad to see you out of there..", But it is a fantastic country, I wish I could have gone and done more, gone into the wilderness a bit, maybe seen some football games, but it didn´t work out.
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Back to Ecuador, new years eve and volunteering - Quito, Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador

So anyhow, now that feeley went back to Eire for xmas, I decided to go back to Ecuador and do some volunteering in a kids school in Quito, even though all I knew about it before I began was that it was a school, and that I would be doing it with 2 German lass's that I'd met along the way. So back I went on the bus from Bogota and spent about 40 odd hours commuting from Bogota, Columbia to Cuenca, a colonial town in Southern Ecuador. Backtrack Mike the lads were calling me. So I arrived in Cuenca eventually, on the 30th of Jan, and the whole town was preparing for new years eve party. But New Years party in Cuenca was a little different, in that everyone was encouraged to buy and wear a mask of some description, and fireworks if you wanted. Needless to say, being a naive young west waterford buchaill, who never fired a firework before, I bought all around me. So myself and the 2 German lass's partied it up good-o for new years. During the day, there were these processions, like St. Patrick's day at home, with all these weird floats, I don't know where they all came from for a village so small, but we were loving the show. One of the events they had on was, a big 20 foot pole, with all goodies tied to the top, and it was up to the young kids to try and climb the pole to grab some goodies from the top. It was very funny, because the parents of the kids were trying to push them up the pole with the end of a brush, to encourage them on. Most didn't get anything though the craters, they just ended up with sore bums from parents pushing them up with the end flat end of a brush! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu0DnvZb jw0 At night, the locals had stages set up with local effigies of politicians, scenes from history, with large caricature models of famous people, villains, soccer plays, like 15 foot tall models of these people, and then come 12 midnight, they took a match to all of them and burnt the lot! So at about 12:05, the streets were a burning mess of litter, caricatures, masks, cloths, stages, fireworks, and other assorted things, with people dancing around them. Kinda strange, but a good and random new years eve party all the same! So I hung around in Cuneca for a few days afterwards, and was due to start volunteering in the school in Quito the following Monday morning. So I made my way back to Quito, and met up with the 2 German lass's, Julia and Nina, and they brought me out to the school, about 45 minutes commute from the city center. In the morning, I was brought before the director and given a chat, so that they could decide what to do with me. Now, I'd never worked with kids before much, so teaching English in the classes wasn't really an option with my level of Spanish being so bad. So they asked me "Do you know anything about Tomatoes?" to my surprise, and I replied "Tomatoes! Sure didn't Ruth Logue given me half a dozen plants there last summer, and sure didn't I go and sort out my uncle Dodo's green house for him the summer before last, and didn't John Lyons take me through how to look after them, and he practically introduced them to Macroom!!" But unfortunately, the director didn't know Ruth Logue, Dodo Cliffe, John Lyons or Macroom for that matter, or didn't speak a word of English, so I just said "Si"! So off to the green house with me, with a few of the worse for wear cloths and started working to sort out the Green house, which was a complete mess of neglect. The School keeps a massive 20mx60m green house for tomatoes, a big one, to produce tomatoes to see 3 harvests a year to help fund the school, tomatoes being one of the more lucrative vegetable to grow and sell in Ecuador. In the afternoons, I took took the kids for soccer games in the pitch in the school, which was good ould crack. The school, having 140 kids attending, was also an orphanage for 19 kids, aging from 6 to 17, full time kids who lived at the school, and it was for them that we were mainly helping, helping to make lunch and dinner for them (breakfast was at about 5am so we let them work away on their own with that one!) giving good example, helping them with homework, and generally being good role models (laugh all ye want, I'm a great role model!), and to be honest, it was tough leaving them after the 2 weeks. To help as a fund raiser, we had a raffle to one day, and I was in charge of organizing a bingo contest, which was a good ould laugh. during the weekend we had at the school, myself Nina and Julia, went for a trip to Quilnatoa in Ecuador, which is a dormant volcano, with a big lake in the middle. Beautiful, even the drive up the mountain was spectacular. We even got to see the volcano in Banos erupting in the distance, some 3 hundred miles off in the distance! Check out the photos. At the end of the 2 weeks, on our last night, the kids put on a night of entertainment for us, and presented us with little tokens of appreciation, handmade little doll type things, its was all very touching. They even tried to portray a bit of Ecuador social problems through performances, which was great really, all well organized. So we said our goodbyes and left the school with a heavy heart, and off I went back to Columbia to meet up with Feeley somewhere along the way. Meanwhile, Ed is in Panama at this stage I think, so I was expecting to meet up with him in about a month or so. All in all, I think this volunteering was one of the highlights of my trip, and something I'd love to do more of eventually. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2DTcFKB 5Ak http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBv_dDgS TGk
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Bogota - A boozey Christmas with Eddie and Rosey - Bogota, Colombia

Bogota, Colombia

We arrived dazed after a 26 hr bus journey from Quito on Christmas eve morning in Bogota. One good thing about the journey was the fantastic scenery. Upon entering Columbia, the landscape changed dramatically, to lush hilly greenery with plenty of valleys and deep canyons to wonder at. But the long journey didn´t dampen our Christmas spirit at all, and we were flying after one of our trade mark naps every surfer worth his salt would be familiar with (my policy is if your not drooling, its not a nap). We had a dinner put on for us by the hostel, and 20 gringo enjoyed a free meal and booze too, which was lovely in fairness, before heading out to party. Now, Ed, with his special skills at snuffing out a dance party had his homework done as regards where to head too, but plans got mixed up and we ended up in this dodgy dance place, and ended up having a great night! We decided it would be safest to come home when it was light, for safety's safe like, so off we went home in the not so wee hours of Christmas day. Now, Bogota, Columbia wouldn´t be the safest now, and we saw plenty and heard plenty to freak us out in the first 2 days, and there was fierce talks of "I´m out of here tomorrow lads", but we eventually got a bit cuter, and got to see a nice bit of the city, and it wasn´t that bad at all. In fact, its a lovely city, fantastic views, and the main strip of bars downtown was brilliant. So Brilliant I missed my bus back to Quito by a day. I had in the meantime decided to go volunteering in Quito for 2 weeks, while I waited for Feeley to get back to Bogota, and to spend New years with 2 buddies I had met in Quito, 2 German lasses Nina and Julia, who introduced me to the Volunteering crack. So I left the 2 as they set off to Panama for some waves, while I started back down the road to Cuenca, Ecuador for new years, a mear 40 odd hours in a bus. Sigh. I´ve since earned the name Backtrack Mike for my wonderful plans that never fail to amaze. Oh yeah, checked out the Botero museum too in Bogota, which was fantastic, we all went on a culture tour, and loved it. Got to see some famous other artists there too, so I was happy out.
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Quito - bye bye feeley - Quito, Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador

Feeley was heading home for Christmas for his sisters wedding, and because I had to collect some post in Quito, myself and himself headed off together, ahead of Ed and Rosey. I was a drastic change from flip flops to wellies, as it was bucketing down in Quito, first encounter with heavy rain in 2 months. We just hung around Quito and behaved ourselves for a day or 2 and saw the sights. First order of business was obviously he cinema to see Beowolf, and MacDonalds for the dollar saver menu. We were warned that Quito was a bit dangerous, but thank god we didn´t run into any trouble. Quito is like the second most famous Inca town after Cusco, and boasts a population of 9 million. The city is like 54Km by 5km, so not a small town by any measure. But we just stayed in around the old and new parts of town, which were relatively close together. Most of the recommended sights are around these 2 parts. One of the highlights for me was going up to the top of the Basilica, right up to the top of the belfry, and check out the whole of Quito. Very impressive views of the city. Spent the rest of the time in Quito checking out the place, and going to as much cinema as I could, after being starved of it for a while! This would be the start of being away from the surf for a while too, because we were heading inland until the north coast of Columbia, so the boards were packed away for a while.
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Montinita - party central for coastal Ecuador - Montinita, Ecuador

Montinita, Ecuador

We had heard alot of good shtuff about Montinita on our travels, even as far down as Cusco, so we were expecting alot from this little beach town, and it didn´t disappoint. It offered a good mix of surf and party thats for sure! In the first few days, waves were plentyful, and it was the weekend too, so things were kicking off in the town. Its a small town, full of hostels and bars, and was a magnet for gringos and locals alike. We surfed most mornings early on the reef (which my feet won´t thank me for at all), and had a lazy session on a beach break up the road in the evenings. It was good crack with the 4 of us out, and the banter in the water was cut throat! We got this hostel, and we all had seperate rooms, big beds with even our own hammocks to laze in during the day. Very chilled out place, and scenic to boot. We had some fiercly competitive nights out, in no small part due to the strong coctails we started out with!
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Playas, Ecuador - Finally made it out of Peru - Playas, Ecuador

Playas, Ecuador

So we finally managed to pull ourselves away from Peru, much later than expected, and heading north things started to become a little greener. We had earmarked Playas as a good spot for the surf, and it turned out trumps for us there. We got some lovely uncrowded rights (waves that break from right to left) for a change, much to myself and Ed´s delight, our first since Lima. Feeley, the only goofy footer among us wasn´t impressed! Delighted. Ed´s buddy Rosey joined us too, myself and feeley didn´t know what to expect of our new travel buddy, but she fitted right in among the banter and slagging, fair play to her. God knows you´d want a thick skin to hang around with us! She´d kick all our asses out in the water too, so she normally had the last laugh. We stayed with this cool family of Chileans, and had the run of the place from 6am for the early surf, till we fell in the door late at night. Playas itself is a seaside town on the south west coast of Ecuador, and has miles of different right hand spots all along its northern shore line, so if one isn´t working or is too crowed, just hop along to the next point for a look! We stayed here for 5 days before the swell dropped off, which was signal enough for us to be heading off for Montinita, a popular seaside holiday destination for Ecuadorians.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikeen/mighty07/1195332180/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikeen/mighty07/1195332180/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mikeen/mighty07/1195332180/tpod.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:29:42 +0000 Oh tis far from surfing in Costa Rica I was reared....

Lobitos - Nothing there but surf.. - Lobitos, Peru

Lobitos, Peru

So we finally pulled ourselves out of Huanchaco, and headed for Lobitos, not knowing much else about the place except that it has good surf. So by hook or by crook, we got talking to a dude who knew a dude, who knew of a place to stay, because there are no hostels there. So between the jigs and the reels, we ended up staying with this born again Christian dude in his house, bit of a spacer, but he was alright, he lived a **** life of various messing, but was a new man since he found J.C, fair play to him. So anyhow, Lobitos is a ghost town, used to be a big hub for the America oil companies who lived here, but was reclaimed by the Peruvians, and now is basically unused, and still used as a military training camp, but the pier is still used by the locals for trading with the local fishermen. We bought this giant squid one day for the crack, and got the local fishermen to chop it up`and clean it for us, and ate 2 meals out of it, good ould crack. Ed wasn´t feeling the best though, and nearly calfed when he saw us eating the raw calamari on the second day in a typical Peruvian dish! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVQJiv69 XBA We were travelling with 2 guys that we found in Huanchaco too, Clarlos, a dude from Minorca, who knew little english, but was great crack, and couldn´t get enough of our eejiting, and Frenchie, Elo from the north of France, who decided that she´d take a trip to Lobitos with us. So all of us stuck together in the house, and had good crack, even though there was nothing much to do.
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Mancora - Surfing in shorts and the birthday bash - Mancora, Peru

Mancora, Peru

We arrive to Mancora from Lobitos on the Friday, and it was a welcome relief from a week of rehab, of no drink, internet, telly, anything, So quiet understandably, we hit the town hard that night hard. So hard, that I was a mess all the next day for my actual birthday. Now when I say town, I mean street, a street of about 100 meters with pubs and stuff either side of the panamerican highway. Strange, drinking and dancing on the street with big freighter trucks and traffic buzzing past, and a party that doesn´t end until sunrise+. The surf was ok in the beginning, but some swell hit as we stayed which was great. Such a novelty to be in the water in shorts. We checked out a few spots close by too, like Los Oreganos, which was cool. One evening, we took a "chook chook" taxi to Oreganos, which is a motor bike, with 2 wheels at the back, that fits 3 people in the back, what a laugh. Its like your riding the bike yourself. Tied on the surfboards somehow, and took off as fast as the driver could push the engine. On our way back to Mancora, we ran out of petrol, and had to push up the hills and freewheel down the hills in the dark back to a petrol station in Los Oreganos, there´s a big hill on the way into Los Oreganos, so we were roaring and shouting all the way cause we´d made it, freewheeled into the petrol station at the beginning of town, came to a skid stop right beside a big police jeep, which quietened us fairly fast! So we stayed for about 10 days in Mancora, after which we had enough, I had a little run in with 4 lads and a bottle on the beach one night alright though, feicers got away with my wallet which I was stupid enough to have on me at the time. Nearly ripped the pants clean off me, roughed around a bit too, but no worse than coming up against the 2 Connery brothers abroad in Clashmore in a training session though! Actually, Shirley, I might have to get your mother to put a stitch in those pants for me too if you wouldn't mind! Plus, some cross dressing by colin, getting worried about that child. Although he is quiet fetching in white... Also, We found a yougurt desert inspired by Batty Duggan, Kev´s dad, called batty mix, which was a real hit with us....
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Huanchaco - Eating loadsa fish and surfing mad. - Huanchaco, Peru

Huanchaco, Peru

We arrived in Huanchaco after we got a fit for leaving Lima all of a sudden, and it turned out to be a good move. Its a sleepy little fishing port North of Lima, which offers cheap leaving and plenty of good food for half the cost of what we were paying in Lima. The weather is a alot better too, and the surf even more accessible. Now, having said that, we arrived on the Monday, and the surf was big, maybe double overhead +, and we were wondering why no one was out surfing. So the 3 buckos here paddle out anyhow, and soon find out why there's no body out. 25 minutes and 1 mile down the beach later, out we come from the water with our tails between our legs, after getting an absolute hammering from the waves. Scary stuff. Just our luck to have the biggest swell of the last few months hit the day we arrive. But its since calmed alot, and we've had some great days out surfing. Apart from surfing, we've been eating some fantastic seafood, like fresh Ceviche, (that raw fish dish I was telling ye about last post) and a whole range of other meals, the most expensive of which would cost about $2, new money. Monnie, you would be under serious pressure trying to choose from the seafood menu, you'd be all day trying to decide, like myself! Are those hedges cut at home by the way?! Hunachaco is a fishing port and is famous for its traditional fishermen who head out the sea in these reed boats designed to over come big swell, check out the style of boat in this video.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSEVPNc6 Bf0 Also some more pictures of the village... (Molly, I'll have plenty more inspiration for beach paintings when I get back from this trip I tell you!) Its a nice quiet place to kick back, catch up on the spanish were' meant to be learning (we all got lessons in Cusco), and time to finish off some books that I'm sick of carrying around with me. It gets a bit busy at the weekends, but its really off season for the place at the moment. So I think that we'll stay here until the next big sweel hits, and then move on north again, but it will depend on how we feel about the place I guess.
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