TravelStream™ news feed for member namaste32 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/namaste32 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:29:24 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1258845095/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1258845095/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1258845095/tpod.html Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:29:24 -0500 Sue & Ted's Excellent Adventure

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Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile

Well folks I took a few days off, I clicked my toes together, and now I am in Valparaiso Chile.
I arrived to Santiago on Tuesday. It is a beautiful city but extreamly metropolitan, a rather large change from the back woods of Central America, they also love their mullets. I managed to squeeze one very interesting day out of the city. I began my day as I always do in a new city, aimlessly wandering and trying to find something interesting. I made it to a big park, and decided to sit down and soak it in. I managed to strike up a conversation with a chilean engineer. He said that I could easily find a job as an english teacher in Santiago. He was so confident in fact, that he decided to lead me to the English school that he knew about. He said it was on his way. When we got there we found out that the hiring was on a complete other side of the city. The man decided to accompany me on the subway to this other location. So again I found myself fallowing a stranger through streets that I did not know. At least this man was walking in a strait line in day light and coukld carry on a cnversation. We found out that they wont be hiring again until febuary, but I got an email. Through our conversation I found that he and his family had been members of the military during the coup. He did not think that the government had been very harsh, although he was not about to say that he celebrated Pinochet. This was my first encounter with a chilean.
Later that night I decided to get a little american culture and watched the hangover. While I was watching this guy dressed in strange cloths and a mask kept walking by, jumping up and down. When the movie was over I stepped outside to see what was the commotion. Just then the performance began ... Literally. The man was from Chiapas Mexicio, and did a monolauge preformance of the history of the stars, all he had as props were to sticks that were ¨the gods. He told the story of how the gods treated the people. When the gods spoke he would shake the sticks back and forth, like Tommy des in the car scene in Tommy Boy, and all they would say was ¨BLUHBLUHBLOHGBLUH¨ then the woman would speak the same words but with a higher pitch. He did this about ten times through the story. I laughed, I am not sure if I was supposed to, but I did. Needless to say it was a quick change from stealing Mike Tysons Tiger, just to remind me that I was traveling.
After the preformance a Chilean woman began to spoke. From what I understood she was a theatre professor at the University of Santiago. Mind you the whole audience was only ten people sitting around a table. The woman began to speak of the time of Allende, and how free and open it was. She then went to discuss her life during the time of Pinochet. She said most of her friends left, she stayed and was a member of an under ground art and cultural society. She told a story of one night during a meeting, there was a knock at the door from the military. They were certain that they were all going to die. She said they held hands and thought of their families. Somehow, they managed to get out of it and did not have to face the firing line.
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Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica

hello all



I am still alive, still in the town of Turrialba, and it is still raining. I left you guys off before I was about to go on my 7th wheel date. We ended up going out of town to a Christmas themed restaurant. Our conversations ranged from, why Americans were so obsessed with winning all the time, how European soccer players can handle playing so many games, and the different sizes of cement trucks in different countries. It was a nice cultural experience, although I was ten years younger than everyone and the only non EUer. They all left early the next morning, they seemed to think that rafting was all Turrialba has to offer. In a stroke of laziness and lack of anything better to do I stayed.

I wasted most of the morning playing on the Internet and watching a movie. If I was not going to have an activity for the day, I decided I needed to at least get a little culture. I thought hmmm, where can I find culture at 4:30 on a rainy Saturday afternoon in a town with no museums, and no interesting buildings? So I said screw it and went to the bar.

The bar I found was completely empty, except for a man in the corner and the bartender. Soccer was playing on the TV and they advertised cheap beer so I went in for one. Soon after the man in the corner became very animated, stumbling toward me shouting things I did not understand. All I knew was he sounded angry and every once in a while I heard him say the United States. Thinking on my toes I quickly told him that I was Canadian and my name was Ralph. His anger ended immediately, and a drunk sloppy smile came over his face. He pulled his chair right next to mine and put his arm around me. I must have had a way with words because he then bought my next round of beers. I got a little freaked out and told him I was headed to go watch the Calypso band in the park. He shouted that he wanted to go as well. I soon found myself walking through the streets with the drunkest man I have ever seen. It was OK because he seemed to know everyone. He kept saying that this was his town and he was crazy, and an alcoholic. Later when I asked him his name all he would tell me was Loco. Somehow through the coarse of conversation he decided he liked me so much that I was also loco. Somos locos. Each bartender we saw seemed to know him, and he continued to buy me drinks. At the beginning he told me he was the director of the university, later he became the best lawyer in town. Whatever his profession was, we were in his town and he was crazy. Finally I was getting a bit drunk and told him I needed to go to the Internet. He came with me and made a huge scene in the cafe. He seemed to know everyone there as well. Finally we agreed to meet again in an hour at the first bar in order to watch the soccer game. I went to the bar and watched the game. unfortunately my loco friend did not show. I was not able to make another friend, so I went back to the hostel and went to bed.

This morning I woke up a little fuzzy but ready for some activity. Unfortunately the zip line yours still did not have enough people to make the trip. So I decided to take a ducky down a different river. (A ducky is a small inflatable Kayak) The name of the river I went on was the Pejibaye. We took a bunch of dirt roads through small towns, payed a random woman two dollars and made it to the put in. While we were waiting, one car drove by. It was a really old jeep, the same one Hunter Thompson drives to the dirt bike rally in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The driver also had a hat on like Hunter. The licence plate was LENIN. (This has no importance to anything else, I just felt like I should write it. It was mostly for Parker).

Finally we were ready to run the river. It was just me and the guide and his buddy. They would lead the way through the rapids. Before each rapid he would point his paddle to the left right or middle, and that was the line I was supposed to take. I had an amazing time, hitting rocks and going through rapids backwards. The river is not as picturesque as the Pacuare but beautiful none the less. I saw another toucan. I think this was Sam's brother Aaron, because his wings were far more colorful. He also flew at a different pattern. He would flap his wings really hard and then spread them out and soar over the water. He was not as interesting as Toucan Sam and his missile like tendencies. All in all a great morning, I enjoyed the ducky more than the rafting.

This afternoon I decided to skip the archaeological site, and get some real culture at the local soccer game. I arrived to a packed house as the pictures will show. It was Turrialba against the town over. Tensions rose towards the end. This barn burner ended with the other teams goalie passing the ball to the Turrialba forward, and the forward passing the ball into the net. There was no score board so I did not know that this was the last 5 seconds, or that this meant that the game was tied. The peanut gallery was not happy, one broke his umbrella on the stands in anger. I had to ask a man who did not seem very angry what this meant for the game. At least now I can say I watched a soccer game in Central America.


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Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica




I survived the Pacuare on Friday the thirteenth! Let me tell you, I thought Montana had big rapids. It was pretty much non stop action the whole way down the river. I sat in the front to get the biggest thrills I could. I definitely got them. It seemed that at every turn there was another set of huge rapids. I saw what a real raft guide actually has to do. We were dodging huge rocks, while getting swamped by class four rapids, and then getting soaked by waterfalls falling into the river. More than once I was looking up at a waterfall only to be crashed in the face by a huge wave. On top of that tocans(cant spell, as in tocan Sam, from fruit loops) fly over head the entire day. I had never sen one fly before. They would flap their wings a few times, then put their wings at their sides, like a missile. I got a huge kick out of this.


Unfortunately I was the 7th wheel on the journey, with three European couples. Our guide said that our bus driver could be my girlfriend, I was not amused. I am not Sue, so I cant remember his name, but he was very skilled, and did a great job. I got the company through my hostel hotelamericano. The name of the company is loco tours. I have attached some videos that I stole from Wikapedia. You will notice a kayaker who is running safety for the boats. We were concerned when at each of the biggest rapids, our Kayaker left the water to take photos. Fortunately we had no swimmers.


http://www.wikicostarica.com:16080/index.php/Pacuare_River my favorite part of the video are the Adirondack chairs in the first one. The video does not do the rapids justice, ,but it does show the scenery. We also did not get to swim in the waterfalls, it was rainy and a bit chilly.


I spoke with the German orthopedist for a while about the health care system in our two countries, until I realized that I know nothing about how our system works. So I just talked about doc for a while. Apparently I did not do too badly because the group invited me to dinner tonight. My first meal with a group!! Tomorrow I think I will stay in Turrialba and try to do a canopy tour.


Again no photos, My camera is charged but I did not want to take it on the river. The town of Turrialba is not much too look at. The main difference is that the church at the city center, is the most modern looking building in the whole city. A big change from everywhere else I have been in Central America. Last night I sat by the square and ate Pizza, and drank my comfort drink, a fanta Naranja. Unfortunately the pizza place did not sell beer.

I think I can get used to this blogging thing.
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Alajuela Costa Rica, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Our last early travel morning together. (Cue Teddy´s sigh of relief
now.) We caught the 7 am bus to San Jose, or so we thought. We ended up
having to switch in Santa Cruz, where I almost had a hunger meltdown.
But then I went and bought these delish meat pastry things and all was
right in the world. When we were about an hour away from San Jose, I
noticed a sign for the airport, and I realized we were driving right
past the town I wanted to stay in, Alajuela. We had heard that it was
much closer to the airport and way safer than San Jose. So, I asked the
bus driver if he could let me off early, and he dropped me off at the
airport. There, Ted and I parted ways. It was very sad, but it´s been a
grand adventure, and I know he has an amazing month ahead. I took home
all his presents and some other random stuff he had bought, and he took
the advil, headlamp, money belt, and alll the pepto bismol. Haha. We
made a great team. He´s a little nervous about having to keep track of
his passport now though, so wish him luck! And tell him to keep
blogging!

I caught a bus into town where the nicest lady in the world told me
what stop to get off at and then which direction the parque central was
in. I checked out a few hostels and ended up staying at the Hotel
Trotomundo or something like that. It´s very cheery and has a kitchen
and free internet. He had me when he told me about the free breakfast,
and then I saw the cable TV in the room and it was over. Then I decided
to explore. The awesome part about not walking with Teddy is that I
kind of fit in! Well, until I talk or almost get run over by a large
bus, that is. As long as I don´t dress like a gringo (ie. trekking
pants or denim mini skirts), people pretty much don´t pay much
attention to me. (The fact that I just finished up 5 days on the beach
doesn´t hurt either.) It felt incredibly liberating to walk down the
street without having people trying to sell me stuff or ask if I needed
a taxi. I would even stare down vendors, daring them to say ¨Come in,
my friend.¨ or ¨Taxi, taxi?¨ and none of them did! It was incredible.

Wandering around the town was a real breath of fresh (well, in
actuality, dirty) air after Tamarindo. Finally, I felt like I was
seeing a little bit of the real Costa Rican life. No other gringos, a
fine central square, and lots of street food. I loved every second of
it, as well as the entire three seconds it took me to eat the most
incredible caramel churro of my life. Alajuela´s not a particularly
pretty city, but it felt friendly, and it felt lived in. Also, maybe
it´s the fact that Costa Rican women wear their hair and clothes
in a style similar to the US (much more so than in other countries),
but I found the women here pretty hot. And of all different varieties,
too - even some with lighter hair and eyes. After I was almost finished
wandering, I realized I had about $5 left and nothing to spend it on.
My hostel was covered, I had put aside money for my taxi, and I had
already bought some food for dinner. Then, angels looked down on me,
and I came across a bakery. Perfect. I spent the next 10 minutes
picking out a delightful selection of sweet and savory treats, whose
total equalled the exact change that I had in my hand. It was quite a
lot. And I have had quite a lovely night sitting in my room, watching
awful movies and making sure there are no snacks leftover that I will
have to lug on the plane with me. Check. Maybe, Teddy will update this
later from Turrialba! But if not, we will definitely be posting a blog
entry in a few days with lots of awards to give out to various
countries, as well as our conclusions about the whole trip. Hasta luego!

Hell yeah I am going to continue to write!!



Sue left me today, on a bus all by myself ... I have been dreading this day for most of our trip. Now I actually have to read the guide book well in advance to figure out how buses actually run around here. I also have to keep track of the shampoo and various other medicines, and my passport! Worst of all I have to write the blog now! Just to let you guys know there are going to be some changes around here. First of all that perfect grammar and spelling, are out the window. But with that, you wont have to deal with abbreviations anymore. I will try to post at least twice a week, this once a day stuff has got to go. Also I will try to revolve around photos. Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery this afternoon so I have none.

I am in Turrialba right now. It is a small town in the mountains of Costa Rica, two hours in a direction from San Jose. It is known for its rafting, tomorrow I will be rafting the Pacuare river. Apparently the water is relatively high right now, so there should be some good thrills. Other than that, I made a few friends on the bus who spoke some Spanish to me. And I am sitting in the cheapest Internet cafe since we have been in since Guatemala.
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Playa grande Costa Rica, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

We have to back the truck up a little in regards to our opinion of
Costa Rica. We had really only seen one part of it, and it was unfair
to say that it sucked. Yesterday, we walked down the beach for about 20
minutes and then took a dollar boat across to Playa Grande. It was a
whole new world over there! Unpaved roads, untouched beaches, and lots
of peace and quiet. Wayyy more our style. We made our way to the Playa
Grande Surf Camp, where Teddy's friends Chelsea and Casey work. They
came down to Costa Rica for spring break two years ago, loved it, and
started applying for random jobs. They were offered positions as
managers/surf instructors at this hostel in Playa Grande. They had
never surfed before, but I guess you learn pretty quickly if you surf
everyday. We got there and checked into our little beach bungalow
(complete with mosquito nets - sweet!). Then, Chelsea asked us if we
were ready for our surf lesson. Seeing as I am probably the least
unathletic person ever, in addition to being a terrible swimmer, I have
never tried surfing before. But here was a free lesson, so I really had
no excuse. We grabbed surfboards (omg those things are ridiculously
huge, they make skis look easy in comparison!) and lugged them to the
beach. She told us the cool way to carry them was under your arm, but
when I almost fell over slash took out the fence like three times, she
told me ¨Well, you can just carry it on your head.¨ Awesome, I can't
even carry the darn thing. Now, however, I have way more sympathy for
all the silly tourists who come to Breck and can't even manage to carry
their equipment. It's like, how do you think you're gonna get down the
hill when you can't even carry your stuff? I understand thy pain,
gaper. I must say though, we did look pretty sweet carrying our boards
and wearing our little ¨rashies¨ (this sweet neoprene shirt you get to
wear that makes you look like you're good even when you suck). But, I
was pretty terrified when we got to the beach.

First, we practiced hopping up on the sand as if we were in the
water. All we could think about was that hilar scene in Forgetting
Sarah Marshall - if you don't know what I'm talking about, please stop
reading and go rent that movie. Now. Then it was time to tie on our
leashes and take our boards out into the water. Easier said than
done. What follows is my best attempt at explaining the ridiculous
process of surfing. You have to get your board out far enough in the
water so that you can actually catch a wave and ride it into shore. If
you are too close to shore, by the time you stand up, the wave dies and
you will immediately fall on your face. (If you think I sound like I am
talking from experience, you are right.) The process of getting it out
far enough was definitely our least favorite part of the whole
experience. Especially for me, since I don't like putting my head
underwater. (Yeah, don't ask me why I thought surfing would be a good
idea.) You basically have to push your board and your head under the
wave as it comes crashing down on you so it doesn't pull you backwards
and take you back 10 feet closer to shore, reversing all the progress
you just made (again, I may or may not be speaking from experience).
All the while, you are attempting to pull your surfboard along behind
you like a disobedient puppy as the waves try to take it away from you.
Even better, in my case, the shark fin thingy on the bottom kept biting
me (and I have the bruises and cuts to prove it). Then, finally, after
you've swallowed fifteen gallons of saltwater, lost your hairthing due
to be tossed about in the waves like a ragdoll (and thus look like a
moron with hair plastered all down your face like surfing Barbie), been
hit in the leg about a thousand times by your stupid oversized
surfboard, and are so out of breath from swimming you feel like you've
just crossed the English Channel, oh then, it's time to surf. What the
hell have I been doing for the past fifteen minutes?! Now, you wait.
You have to sit there, getting tossed about by the waves, waiting for
the ¨right¨ wave. You've gotta be kidding me, right? And the right
wave, at least according to our instructors, is the one that looks like
a frickin tsunami, going a million miles an hour and frothing with
whitewater. Then you turn around, with your belly on the board, facing
the beach. And start paddling.. away from the wave. Whoever made up
surfing was on a lot of drugs. Then, when you hear the waves crashing
behind you like they are going to consume you whole, you paddle faster,
and then when the wave starts whooshing down on you and pushing you at
the speed of light towards LAND, you are supposed to assume a push up
position, and ¨jump up, replacing your hands with your front foot¨ and
then lean forward and ride the wave out. Haha. Yeah, lotssss of drugs
for Mr. Surfing Inventor.



I'm kidding, though. Mostly. Yes, the idea of surfing is
ridiculous, and it is very hard, but we had an absolute blast. Teddy
could stand up pretty much immediately (Mr. Athletic) and was loving
every second of it. It took me a little bit longer, but eventually I
stood up on the board as well. And let me tell you, it is a pretty
amazing feeling. Maybe because you just spent an hour getting to the
wave, but nonetheless it was really awesome. Chelsea was a great
teacher, and Casey stood on the beach and took a bunch of sick photos
for us. After about an hour and a half out there, we were beat. Surfing
is an insane workout. We went back to our cabana, laid by the pool,
then went and ate a massive lunch. The rest of the day was lazy (we
deserved it!), and was filled with Bocce ball and reading. That night,
it was turtle time! Or so we thought. We walked about half an hour down
the beach as the sun was setting to Main Playa Grande. It was really
gorgeous, and we saw all sorts of snail and crab tracks, and even
living sand dollars! We had to make it before 6 pm, as the beach is a
national park for the nesting turtles and closes after that. We got a
quick dinner and then went to register at the turtle place. We listened
to a lecture about the turtles, which was really sad. Back in the 80s,
they had thousands of turtles nesting here each year, and last year
they had under 30. Leatherback turtles are so cool, though! They come
back 20 years later to lay their eggs in the same place they were born
and lay something like 40 eggs 9 separate times during the season. And
they are huge - between 4 and 5 feet! We watched a video of the nesting
process, as well as a video of a baby turtle making its way to the
water. I almost died. Then it was time to wait. They herd you into this
room and you sit and wait for one of the park rangers to spot a turtle,
at which time they call the center, and we all get to go and watch the
turtle lay her eggs. The ranger warned us that the past 3 nights, they
hadn't seen any turtles, and the people had waited until 12:30 am and
not seen anything. It was, uh, 7 pm. We entertained ourselves for about
2 hours, and then Teddy got bored. To be fair, we brought the average
age of the turtle observing population down by about 40 years. We felt
like we were on an AARP excursion or something. Guess I am the only
backpacker who likes BABY ANIMALS. Seeing as I didn't think the chances
of seeing a turtle were high and I could see that Teddy was miserable,
and the fact that if we waited much longer, we would have missed our
ride and had like an hour walk home, we left. I know, very sad. I will
just have to come back someday. We then went back to the camp and hung
out with Chelsea and Casey for a bit before going to bed.
Today we woke up early, made some breakfast, and then went back
out surfing. I had thought Chelsea had told me that the best time to
surf for us was between 6 and 8 or 10 and 12, but Teddy said they were
going out at 9, so we did too. Big mistake. It was high tide, and the
waves were massive. I thought I was going to die, and after being
thrashed about for 20 minutes, I went and laid out on the beach. Teddy
chose to stay out and got totes destroyed on a few killer waves, but
the ones he got up on he said were amazing. And he looked really good!
At about 10:30, I figured the tide was down far enough that I could go
out, so I did. And I had a blast. Very frustrating, but very rewarding.
One of the major differences between snowboarding and surfing (ok,
besides the clothes, the weather and the liquid vs. frozen water
factor), is that when you are snowboarding and you have a terrible run,
you have the whole chair ride up to relax, compose yourself, and think
about what you can do better. When you eat shit on wave, you then have
to get up and battle through a thousand pounding waves before you get
back out to the spot, only to be beaten down by several more waves
before you have found a wave that is ready to ride. My only big
complaint. Besides that, the weather's way better and a bikini tan is
far superior to a goggle tan. We had a great time and then headed back
to the camp to pack up. Sadly, we had to come back to Tamarindo today
to catch an early bus to San Jose tomorrow. We are staying at our old
hostel where everybody knows us and where we just let ourselves in with
our old key. Pretty great. In the early afternoon, Teddy went on a
booze cruise with Chelsea and Casey (see attached photo) around the
bay, and I laid out on the beach for a while. All in all, a great end
to a great trip. Tomorrow is one last travel day before I head home on
Friday. We are going to do one more blog entry reviewing the whole trip
in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that!
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Playa Tamarindo Costa Rica, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Saturday, we were again up at the crack of dawn to catch a 5 am bus to
Moyogalpo and then a ferry to San Jorge. Manny and his friend, an
Israeli girl named Danielle, came with us. Once we got off the ferry, a
cab driver offered to take us to the bus station and even to the
border. After a lot of bargaining, we got him to take us to the border
for only a dollar more than it would have been to take the bus.
Sometimes traveling in groups is sweet. We had a big typico breakfast
at the border then began the infinite crossing process. It took about 2
hours and a lot of lines, but finally we were through. We caught a bus
to Liberia (an hour and a half) and then to Playa Tamarindo (2 1/2
hours). We were happy to see that buses here aren´t much more than in
other countries - about a dollar an hour. But as soon as we got to
Tamarindo, our jaws dropped. Cute storefronts, endless surf shops, fast food, no stray dogs,
clean streets, and hundreds of gringos. It was like Disneyland! And they´re not even backpacker gringos, they´re, like, old! Ha, that was for you, mom. Anyways, we are in definite reverse culture shock right now and are trying to get over paying more than $3 for a meal and seeing people that are clean and in normal clothes. The beaches are nice and relaxing though, and seeing as I am quickly running out of money, we are probs just going to stay here until I fly out of San Jose on Friday. Can´t believe it´s already been a month!

Update: We found a decent hostel for $9 a night
called Bahia Paradiso or something like that. The owners are totes
crazy but totes friendly and it is clean and new and near the beach.
Since then, we haven´t really done anything. We´ve laid out and gone
out once, but that´s about it. It´s back to Ramen noodles, too. We
haven´t seen much of it, but so far Costa Rica is by far our least
favorite country. There are thousands of tourists milling about,
everybody speaks English to you even when you speak Spanish to them,
stuff is way overpriced, and we haven´t seen an inkling of culture.
But, people have been friendly and the beach is really nice, so we
can´t complain too much. It´s just very different than where we´ve been. Tomorrow, we´re headed to Playa Grande, just a
few minutes away, to see Teddy´s friends that are surf instructors
here. And I think, at last, we´re also going to see turtles tomorrow night.
Yes!!! (So shh, don´t tell the turtle hater, we don´t want him to try and foil my plans!)


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Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

Alright, so there´s really nothing to do in Tamarindo, so I decided to
blog. It might be a little abbreviated, due to my reduced typing speed,
but here goes. Thursday, we had a lazy morning then took the bus to the
Finca Magdalena outside of Balgue. It is an all organic coffee and
honey farm. Our guide showed us the entire process of making coffee,
from picking the beans to drying, shelling, and roasting them. It was
pretty cool to see how it was made, seeing as we both drink coffee
almost everyday and really had no idea of the lengthy process behind
it. We just happened to notice that all the giant peeling machines in
one room were made in a very special city... Syracuse, NY! It was
funny, and nice, to see a piece of home in such a random place. Teddy
really enjoyed eating all the raw beans and even pocketed a handful to
bring home with him. Needless to say, he was WIRED for the rest of the
day. After our tour was over, we sat down and drank a cup of coffee
from the farm. We think it may be just because we had seen all the work
behind it, but that coffee was absolutely delish. On our bus ride back,
we befriended an Austrian kid named Manny, whom we invited to come and
eat dinner with us. While we were waiting for our big fish platters, we
started talking about the usual. Manny asked us where we were from, and
we said a small town in New York. He asked where, and we said that he
wouldn´t know it. Then he said, ¨Well maybe I would. I used to work up
there.¨ Us: ¨Where?¨ Manny: ¨Raquette Lake.¨ Us (as we both pound the
table with our fists): ¨What?!¨ Turns out he worked at Raquette Lake
Boys Camp as a windsurfing instructor two summers ago. Teddy´s family
has a camp on the lake and he has pretty much spent every summer
growing up there. And I have three friends from Colorado that worked at
the camp the same summer as Manny, and he knew all of them! So, we were
both very excited and exchanged stories about Raquette Lake (Teddy) and
mutual friends (me). How crazy is that, though? Some Austrian kid whom
we met on a bus on a volcanic island in the middle of Nicaragua knows
where we´re from and some of the same people. Small world. We decided
we really liked him and invited him to come and hike the volcano with
us the next day. He said he wasn´t sure, but that he´d wait out by the
road and catch the same bus if he decided to come. We hit the hay early
in preparation for our big day.

Friday, we woke up really early and caught the 5 am bus back to Balgue.
We were stoked to see Manny get on the bus s well. We started the hike
at the Finca Magdalena, where we had a quick breakfast. The hike up was
pretty cool, through groups of coffee and cocoa plants. We got to try
the cocoa nut as well, which had a really yummy gel-y outside. The bean
wasn´t that great, but you could definitely taste a hint of chocolate.
Then it started to pour. Like really pour. It was one of the more
intense hikes we´ve been on, since we were pretty much climbing a
waterfall. There was a constant stream of water coming down, and it was
very muddy and very rocky (I feel like a broken record, bec I´ve said
this about all our hikes, but this one was the worst!). We had to use
all fours, grabbing at rocks and vines to pull ourselves up. In a
couple of spots, we even had to wedge ourselves between two walls of
dirt to prop ourselves up as we climbed because there was too much
water on the ground. We felt pretty hardcore. Then we started passing
through a really cool cloud forest that reminded us of Fern Gully and
Twilight. Loved every second of it, especially pretending that Edward
Cullen was right there beside me. After 3 hours and 20 minutes (our
guide says it normally takes 4!), we arrived at the top. And we
couldn´t see anything. It was really cloudy (obvi, it was pouring) and
we could barely see to the other side of the crater lake, let alone the
island. Though we had initially been excited to swim in the crater lake
at the top, now in the freezing rain, it didn´t seem so appealing. But,
Manny was going, so Teddy decided to as well. And I wasn´t about to be
that girl that didn´t go. So, stupid follows stupid, and we all jumped
in. It was pretty nasty. We were in mud up to our knees and the cold
water was pretty much black. We got in for a few minutes, snapped a
quick pic, and got out. I guess we can say we swam in a volcano now?
Since we didn´t have any dry clothes to put back on, we were also
freezing. But, as soon as we started the hike down, we quickly warmed
up. It was pretty slow going, however, since we were slipping and
sliding all over the place. We all almost bit it a dozen times.

Then, I actually did. I slipped in some mud and fell backwards, putting
my hand out to catch my fall. All of a sudden my finger hurt really
badly. I didn´t think it was a big deal, though, and started trying to
get up. Then I looked at my finger and screamed. It was bent sideways!
Ted called up to me ¨Sue, you alright?¨ thinking that I was just being
dramatic. Then I said in this really pathetic baby crying voice, ¨I
think my finger´s broken.¨ Have Ted do the impression, you´ll be
laughing for hours. They all quickly ran back up to me and started
trying to comfort me. I had no idea what I was going to do. Um, I´m on
the side of a volcano in the middle of an island in Nicaragua with a
bent finger. What?!! Realizing this, I started really crying and Teddy
just kept telling me, ¨You´re a hero, Sue.¨ Manny didn´t really know
what to say and just sat there trying to be comforting. Then, I looked
at my finger and realized I looked like Frankenstein. I pointed this
out and we all started laughing. Then I asked Ted to take a picture,
and he was more than happy to oblige. From then on, we had a lot of fun
laughing at our ridic sitch. Teddy even took a video. He had to pause
in the middle, however, because I started freaking out when the guide
kept repeating the word ¨cortar.¨ Me not being in a state where I
couldn´t understand Spanish, I did not like hearing about any type of
cutting. Finally we realized he wasn´t talking about my finger, but
about the ring I was wearing. Seeing as it was a life partner ring from
my best friend in college and ¨the only nice piece of jewelry I own!¨
(that´s what I kept whining about), I did not want to cut it off. The
guide tried to slide it off my already swollen finger with the aid of
chapstick, which was probs one of the most painful experiences I´ve
ever endured, but it was a no go. So seeing as we had nothing to cut it
with, he just left it on and then kind of put my finger back into
place. Extreme! We continued on down the mountain, with me being really
careful and using a walking stick and occasionally Teddy´s hand for
balance. About halfway down, we stopped at an incredible viewpoint from
which we could see the other volcano and pretty much the entire island.
After what seemed to be an interminable time, we were down. We waited
for a bus to take us back to Santo Domingo, where I saw the skinniest
dog in the world and gave him all my bread. I have never seen anything
eat that fast, and Teddy is still telling me that I killed the dog by
feeding him too much. I choose not to believe that. I think he is
probably playing in the sunshine with the chickens right now. We went
back to our hotel and told everybody how hardcore I was and peeled off
our filthy clothes after a dip in the lake. We then called Teddy´s dad
(an orthopedic surgeon, how lucky!) to make sure the guide had done the
right thing with my finger. Luckily, he had, and we felt pretty
satisfied with the outcome of our day. We decided we had done pretty
well in a quasi-crisis sitch and congratulated ourselves with some
cerveza.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257386032/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257386032/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257386032/tpod.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:57:03 -0500 Sue & Ted's Excellent Adventure

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Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

We had a pretty good night yesterday. We went searching for food around
7 pm, and boy did we find it. Though we were planning on going to a
restaurant, we ended up getting distracted by a lady frying up poposas
on the sidewalk. (You know how birds are attracted to shiny things? We
are, similarly, attracted to anything that looks fried and delicious.)
They were one of our favorite things that we've eaten on the trip so
far. Pupusas (we think that's how you spell it) are two fried corn
tortillas (but thicker) with chicken and cheese on the inside. Hard to
describe, even harder to imagine how good they were. And they were only
50 cents! We ate several. Having finished our delightful meal, we
decided it was time for a beer. We headed to the Gringostreet we had
walked down earlier, figuring it was our best and safest bet. We
managed to find one cafe that actually had a fair amount of Nicas at
it, as well as live music, so we sat down. Pretty soon, a breakdancing
crew came and started performing in the street for us. (And I love
watching live dancing almost as much as I love food and almost as much
as Teddy loves beer.) They were incredible, doing flips off each other
and bending themselves into ridiculous pretzels. They even had two
really cute little boys of about 7 who were doing some amazing stuff.
When they came around asking for donations, you can bet we coughed it
up.

Then, walking down the street, were Darren and Nicola, the couple that
we have seen absolutely everywhere. We couldn't believe it. They were
pretty shocked, too, and we decided we simply must sit down over a
beer. It was great fun chatting with them and the other couple they
were with. They are going to be in Argentina when Teddy is, so he might
be able to meet up with them one more time! (This time, we exchanged
email addresses, figuring that Argentina's a bit bigger than CA.) One
of the more hilar moments of the night was when Darren asked me how
Teddy and I met. Which is definitely a question you only pose to
couples. If you're talking to friends, you ask "Where do you guys know
each other from?" But for couples, you ask where they met. So, I
figured it was a good time to finally break the news that we weren't a
couple. We had never said we were, but they just assumed and we
eventually felt awk being like "BTW, we are NOT a couple." Though they
were both surprised, they then said something to the effect of "We were
wondering about that. We were saying that you guys never touch or say
affectionate things to each other. We figured we just must always catch
you guys in a fight or something." Haha. We loved it. After a few
mojitos, it was time to go back, and we had to say goodbye. Though who
knows, we'll probs see them tmrw.

We woke up early this morning, showered, and got a really good typico
breakfast. We just made the bus to Rivas, which was about an hour and a
half away. Here, we took a quick taxi to San Jorge, where we caught the
hour long ferry to the Isla de Ometepe. (All the legs of our trip were
about $1.) Ometepe is an island formed by two giant and beautiful
volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua (the 10th largest body of fresh
water in the world.) The whole island has a population of about 35,000
people and is actually way bigger than we imagined. It is the first
thing Teddy decided he wanted to visit when we started planning the
trip, and we've been looking forward to it ever since. We arrived in
kind of a crappy town in Ometepe and took another 2-hour bus to Santo
Domingo, the nicest and most popular beach. After getting off the bus,
we were stoked to see that the hotel we had wanted to stay at was right
in front of us. What luck! Our hotel is the Hospedaje Buen Vista ($6
each with a private bathroom), and it's got a nice sitting area
overlooking the lake with hammocks and, of course, rocking chairs. It's
right on the beach and just has a very relaxed vibe. Now that we had
checked hotel off our list, it was time for food.

We went next door to a little comedor and sat down. Our waitress was
ridiculously friendly and we immediately felt at home. Teddy had an
extended convo (in espanol!) with a guy on the boat about what the best
food to get on the island was, and he had said fish. So we both went
with the fried fish and gallo pinto (rice and beans). We also ordered a
litro of beer to go along with it. Though it took about an hour, the
fish was incredible. It came out whole, with the head and everything,
and was perfectly cooked and delicious. Our waitress, Julia, told us
that we ate like Nicas because the fish was totally clean when we were
done with it - not a speck of meat on it. We were proud. Julia then
came and sat with us, and we all chatted in Spanish for a while. Then
she called over her friend, Gabriel, who also sat and talked for about
another hour. We even talked politics! Don't tell anybody this, but
Teddy and I actually high-fived when we were done. That's how psyched
we were about our Spanish. We are dorks. Tomorrow, Gabriel is going to
be our guide and take us on a tour of a local organic coffee farm. Then
on Friday, we are going to climb the Volcan Maderas. It is the smaller
of the two volcanoes, but we've heard it's a much better hike. We think
we even get to swim in a crater lake at the top! And see monkeys!
Everyone here has been incredibly friendly, and they all seem to love
the word "perfectamente." They use it in place of "si" and to describe
almost everything. And that's exactly how we feel here. Perfectamente!

PS. Internet's pretty expensive here (there are only 100 people that
live in Santo Domingo and only two public computers), so we might not
be blogging much. But in amazing blog news, pix are back up and
running! Yay! Check em out on previous entries!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257134992/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257134992/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257134992/tpod.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:31:34 -0500 Sue & Ted's Excellent Adventure

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Leon Nicaragua, León, Nicaragua

Today was a pretty lazy day. We were really tired (read: hungover) this
morning, so we just laid out at the pool all day. (In our defense, we
did try to go to an art museum, but it was closed.) And ate a lot of
food. Including two (well, I ate two) ridiculous hot dogs. A Nica hot
dog is no New York hot dog but is really interesting anyways. The
actual hot dogs themselves are extremely tiny (and boiled, not grilled)
and come enveloped in a giant white bun with an obscene amount of
sauce. Of course, I love sauce of all creeds and colors, so I dug it.
They loaded me up with mayo, ketchup, mustard, onions, and hot sauce.
(It was pretty much saucy bread, but for 50 cents each, who can
complain?) This was merely an appetizer for Ted, however, and we went
to a nearby restaurant to fill him up. It was right on the parque
central, and the people watching couldn´t be beat. Neither could the
Teddy-is-consuming-a-ridic-amount-of-food watching. He ordered two main
courses and polished them off in record time. I don´t think I´ve ever
seen him happier. Well, except for when he talks about the Felice
Brothers.

On another awesome note, as we were walking today, I saw something I
haven´t seen in Central America yet - a movie theater! And there´s
pretty much nothing I love more than going to movies. Only a few days
ago Ted and I discussed my extreme affinity for going to the movies,
and he said he hadn´t been in forever. When at home, I pretty much go
every week or two; it´s one of my fave pastimes. I love everything
about it - the snacks, the previews, the people, the lights going down
-- the entire experience. It´s a totes escape. I tried to explain my
endless theories about the movies to Ted, but he isn´t that big of a
fan. So, I was delighted when he agreed to go with me tonight. The only
non-horror movie (neither of us can watch those awful things) out of
the four showing was ¨The Ugly Truth,¨ the cheesy chick flick with
Katherine Heigl. I was pumped, bec I´ve been wanting to see it since it
came out. Teddy was... not. But, he was a good sport and I was stupidly
excited all day.

And once we got there, Teddy was too. Even going to the movies is a
cultural experience down here. And it´s SO cheap; it´s only $2.50!
(Noted as a very acceptable reason to move to Leon.) You can also get a
pizza, popcorn, and soda combo for about $3. Love it. So I ordered my
usual obscene amount of snacks and we were in. Well, not really. Here,
you have to wait for them to open the door to the theater. It´s pretty
cool; everyone waits outside together like you´re going to see a live
performance or something. Then there´s this dramatic opening of the
gate, a flood of people, and at last.. the previews! We really liked
it. Even better, the movie was actually really funny (or maybe we´re
just starved for American comedy). When it was over, we had pretty much
forgotten where we were. And, miracle of miracles, Teddy admitted I was
right! No, not about everything (he hasn´t realized that yet), but
about the movies - that it was a wonderful escape. Yay, movies!

PS. Ted wants evreyone to know that he is in the process of putting up
some more pix, so be sure to check out our previous entries in the next
few days. Currently, there´s a really sweet one of our trip to Tikal.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257214022/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257214022/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namaste32/4/1257214022/tpod.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:31:08 -0500 Sue & Ted's Excellent Adventure

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Leon Nicaragua, León, Nicaragua

Today we woke up early and were the last two to make it on a volcano
sandboarding trip. We had tried to sign up yesterday, but all the
companies were either closed or full. We went with Tierra Tours and it
cost about $30. After hopping in a Gringomobile, we stopped at a market
for some fruit and then to pick up our boards. At this point, we had to
decide whether we wanted to sit on the board or get a more
snowboard-like contraption that strapped onto your feet. Since I´d been
sandboarding before, and was terrible at it, I opted for the sled so I
could go fast. Or so I thought. Teddy was brave and decided he wanted
to try to stand up on a board for the first time.. on volcanic rock.
Only good things to come, of course. It took us about an hour to get to
Cerro Negro (Black Hill), the youngest and most active volcano in
Nicaragua. We drove past fields of yucca, peanuts, corn, and soybeans,
as well as some of the poorest houses we´ve seen. There were several
communities of houses built with sticks and plastic bags as walls. Our
guide told us that these families made their money by cutting down wood
in the national park and selling it in Leon. He wasn´t sure whether it
was illegal or not. Regardless, it looked like a really tough life.

Compared to other vplcanoes we´ve seen, Cerro Negro was pretty tiny.
But it still looked really cool because the entire surface was black
volcanic rock, as opposed to other, bigger ones that have foliage and
stuff on the sides. Now it was time to actually pick out our boards.
The first one he handed out was a sitting one. Our guide said that he
needed the strongest and bravest guy to take it, since it was brand new
and could go really fast. Teddy was snowboarding, so he was out. And
the rest of the guys in our group were European, so they were out. So,
when nobody stepped forward and with me being the moron I am, I
volunteered. Biggest, bravest guy? Check and check. Then we started a
steep but short ascent up the slippery rock. It was kind of hard
because we had to carry our boards. We eventually reached a stopping
point where we were allowed to go down into the volcano a little bit
and play in the sulphuric fumes. Probs not great for our health, but we
enjoyed taking some excellent jumpy pix there.

We kept climbing along the rim of the volcano and eventually reached
the point from which we´d be boarding. We left our boards there and
climbed to the top of the rim so we could look into the crater of the
volcano, which last erupted in 1999. Needless to say, we also took some
ridic jumping-into-the-crater pix. Then it was time for the boarding.
We put on kneepads, elbow pads, goggles, wrist guards, and gloves. The
slope was looking pretty steep, and pretty scary. It was about a 40
degree slant of volcanic sand and rock. We were both kind of regretting
our decisions. I decided I wanted to board down (it looked way more fun
than sandboarding in Peru), and Teddy was pretty terrified to do it,
seeing as he had never snowboarded or surfed or anything before. I
asked our guide if I could take his (our guide´s) board, seeing as he
had a snowboard and does this everyday. But, he was pretty rude about
it and wouldn´t let me switch. I didn´t really expect him to, but he
didn´t have to lecture me for like twenty minutes about how I changed
my mind. Uh, did you not notice I´m a girl?

After I realized I couldn´t switch, I began to be terrified about how
my board was the ultra fast ultra elite one. All the other sitters went
down (going pretty fast!), then it was my turn. I was all ready to
rock, having listened to the speeches he had given to the other people
and seeing everybody else survive. But, nope, I got a special speech.
Homeboy told me that this board was incredibly fast and incredibly
dangerous and that he had seen people go down on it in 20 seconds. He
also said that since I was small I might have to stand up and pull on
the rope when I ¨inevitably¨ would get out of control. And about a
billion other things that I should or shouldn´t do so I didn´t die. I
was pretty much terrified when he finished. I wish I could say I threw
all his advice to the wind and went down crazy fast, but I am trying to
run an honest business here. So, here it is: I crawled. Not literally,
but I went really really slow, digging my feet into the sand and
screaming the whole way (nobody else so much as whimpered). Eventually,
I got the hang of it and started to go faster, and it turned out to be
really fun. But I in no way used the board to its potential. Oh well,
at least I still have all my limbs.

Then it was time for the snowboarders to go. I was at the bottom by the
time I could see them, and Ted was actually doing really well! (Damn
those natural athletes.) You couldn´t really carve like on a snowboard,
but you went down facing the mountain, kind of going back and forth
across the hill. Our guide came down really fast, doing all these fancy
turns, and then I realized he hadn´t wanted to give me his board bec he
wanted to show off for the hot Nica girl that was on our trip. Men.
Since he was so far ahead of Ted and the other girl who snowboarded,
however, I asked him if I could take his board and hike up a little to
try it out. This, he let me do, probs so that the Nica girl would see
other people sucking and realize how good he was. I hiked up a little
way (pretty tough in sand) and strapped in and came down with mild
success. It was pretty fun, and actually (kinda sorta maybe not but
just a little bit) made me excited to go back and ski and snowboard in
Breck this winter. Uh, wait, I just thought about wind and cold and
scraping off my windshield. Maybe I take that back. Teddy, after doing
so well, really wanted to go again. He also realized that snowboarding
is a ridiculous workout. Major bonus points for getting him to move to
Breck! I also told him that if he does move to Breck, he could tell
everyone he shredded a volcano. Screw knowing math, history, who our
President is, or any type or real knowledge, shred cred will get you
everywhere in Summit County.

We headed back to the van, and our guide started harassing me about how
I must have relatives in Central America or Mexico somewhere. This
happens often, and usually I quickly explain that I am half-Japanese
and that´s why I look funny. But, since I was still mad at him for not
letting me take his snowboard, I passively agressively told him that,
no, all my family lives in America. He kept insisting, and so did I.
Not exactly payback, but I felt pretty good about it. On the way out of
the park, we stopped at an extremely bizarre collection of cages. There
were two pythons and a rattlesnake, as well as a giant fenced in area
with about 500 iguanas. The zoo, Nica style? By the time we got back,
we were starving. We found this little place that had a buffet style
setup, but with a lady behind it serving food. We thought it was all
you could eat and were super pumped, but apparently you only get to
come up once. It was a very confusing process trying to figure out how
it all worked, and I was hungry and ended up getting super frustrated
and just threw up my hands and stared at Ted. Mini meltdown during
which I def gave up on my espanol for a moment. Ted wanted me to be
sure I included that since he thinks I don´t bash on myself enough in
the blog. (Ladies, if you want a sensitive one, you´ve found your man.)
It was all worth it, however, because we ended up getting a really
yummy typico plate with rice and beans (called gallo pinto here), meat,
and plantain chips, for about $3. And don´t forget the orange soda. For
some reason, we have become absolutely obsessed with orange soda. We
drink it all the time. FYI, in case you come down here, just know that
they are probs lacing the orange soda with crack cocaine. We just
wandered around after that, attempted to go to the art museum again
(closed for Saint´s Day or maybe just we don´t feel like coming to work
day), and sat in a park and ate ice cream. Reason #27 to move down
here: delish ice cream cones are 35 cents! Now we´re planning on a lazy
night (baseball, tear) before bussing it early to Granada tomorrow.



PS. I wanted to explain one thing. I put a lot of prices in the blog,
and I don´t want people to think it´s because I´m bragging about what
good bargain finders we are or how much money we´re spending or
something. There are two reasons I put prices in the blog. 1. We meet a
lot of travelers who are going the opposite way as us. Instead of
writing down prices, places we stayed, etc, I just give them a link to
the blog and they can find all the companies, etc, in there. I also
know from messages I´ve received that people use blogs to plan trips.
So, I think that prices really help with that.

The second reason is that I want people to know that traveling,
especially in developing countries, is not prohibitively expensive.
It´s cheaper than sitting at home in the States without a job (we have
met countless people who were laid off and therefore came down here),
and is definitely cheaper than taking a vacation to Florida. For what
you spend in Florida in a week, you could spend three weeks down
here.Maybe a month. Not to mention all the culture and other adventures
you can find in another country, as opposed to Oldieland. And the fact
that a flight down here is about the same price as it is to Florida.
Ok, there´s my little price explanation and shameless plug for travel
in developing countries. Glad to get it off my chest.
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