TravelStream™ news feed for member simonjames on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/simonjames en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:41:41 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1174448280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1174448280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1174448280/tpod.html Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:41:41 -0400 Guatemala or bust. A young man's epic

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Cancun, Mexico

Beautiful! After a Thursday
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Tapachula, Mexico

Tapachula, skeeetchy border crossing! Drug smuggling capital of central america i´m sure... terribly boring uneventful night...
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Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala

Xela, beeautiful town. Took a while to find Central Pârk.... volunteer with ninos, crazy hikes through the Guatemalan rainforests... Good people, good parties... Lost all my STUFF!!
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Leon, Nicaragua

Leon. Party paaarty! Figured out finally to stay in hostels, not hotels. Final night in Nicaragua, bit of Nicaraguan pot - break dancers SHIT!
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Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

Isla de Ometepe. Volcanoe-climb attempt and failure. Nice beaches/beautiful walks through the rural roads. Knocking down mangos right off the tree...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172608620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172608620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172608620/tpod.html Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:50:13 -0500 Guatemala or bust. A young man's epic

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San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

I got to San Juan del Sur, by bus, at around noon today. It was a short but painful trip, as my knees were slamming into the midget seats ahead of me. San Juan is a really beautiful beach in a horseshoe shape, white sand, turqouise but COLD water (or colder than the Caribbean anyway). It´s only a couple km´s from Costa Rica, and so either today or tomorrow I´ll cross the border and head down there.

San Juan is a big turtle nesting/hatching/whatever you call it place, and they have boats that go out there at night to watch them, so I think I´ll do that if I can get on a boat. I´m gonna go find that out right now, see you later!

I´ll throw some photos up next time I get a chance

P.S. Robyn would you rather a nice turtle-skin wallet or a handbag? don´t worry they´re cheap... muh hah ha...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1170704940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1170704940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1170704940/tpod.html Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:35:43 -0500 Guatemala or bust. A young man's epic

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Boaco, Nicaragua

After three marathon days in Managua, Nicaragua, I made it up to this really great town called Boaco. Its so cool because its in the middle of all these hills, and the layout of the town is really different, they say theres two floors to Boaco, Boaco arriba or Boaco abajo, one is up and ones down. I´m living with a really big family on the upper part, in a pretty cool house, except for the parrot that won´t shut it. ´Lara´doesnt even talk, she just screams all the time...

Its a really inexpensive rural town, in the middle of the country, so i´m really the only white kid here. Its good to be living in the middle of a town thats never geared towards tourists, making the tourists happy... Still the place is pretty clean, theres a great central park, and healthy percentage of beautiful women. Its also really safe too so you don´t have to worry about hiking up a mountain with two strangers carrying machetes (see pictures)... everyone is really helpful, and the guy who runs the main restaurant in the middle of the park, Alvaro, has been looking out for me. He found me the family i´m at now.

So the plan is to stay here at least 2-4 weeks, then try and get out to the carribbean in Nicaragua and Honduras. que bueno

adios muchachos,

Simon
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172520960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172520960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172520960/tpod.html Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:30:32 -0500 Guatemala or bust. A young man's epic

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Managua, Nicaragua

Yea okay it was a joke after all - it says on the website C420 for a flight to Cuba, but I got to the airport at 5 in the morning to get the flight - and its $420 dollars! I knew it was too good to be true. So after one night in Managua I´ll mosey down the coast to Costa Rica, see what kind of trouble I can´t get into.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172352120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172352120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1172352120/tpod.html Sat, 24 Feb 2007 16:38:25 -0500 Guatemala or bust. A young man's epic

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Bluefields, Nicaragua

Adios Boaco, hola Bluefields! The last couple days of Boaco were a good time, but I definately needed to get going, and I didn´t want to walk up any more hills. I trecked through the rain at 2:30am to the bus station, and after waiting for an hour and a half got a bus to Managua. From there it was a 5 hour bus ride to Rama, a town at the end of the river that goes down to Bluefields, a fishing town on the Caribbean. Its not really on the Caribbean though, its at the end of the muddy river, not exactly picturesque, so tomorrow I´ll try and get to Big Corn Island, a really beautiful spot about 50 miles off the coast.

After that, the plan is to bus back to Managua, and fly to Cuba! It says on the internet its only around 30 or 40 bucks to fly from Nicaragua, which I think might be a joke... but we´ll see. I think the two countries have good relations, but are both very poor, so flights are cheap.

Deffinately stoked! I´ll keep you on track. Take care
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1171673520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1171673520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/simonjames/simonstrip/1171673520/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:50:18 -0500 Guatemala or bust. A young man's epic

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Boaco, Nicaragua

hanging out in the internet cafe with my two homies! see pics. they´ve run off with my camera though i should maybe chase them down. now they´re taking pictures of everyone in the cafe. you can attribute those photos to them...

Boaco is great, its been more of the same, hangin out, meeting some new people, i´ve started spanish lessons again and its goin pretty good. You can see a picture of my teacher, theres one during a lesson in my room, and one where he´s working, at the bottom of a well digging for water!! i just went for a run and on the way back ran into him randomely when his friend waved me down. thats bloody hard work. hes down there 6-8 hours, for 3 bucks.

I´ve met a really great girl, her name´s Elliete (sp?) she works at the restaurant in the park, and we´ve been hanging out all the time. Her family is cool too, i´ll try to put some photos up right now. Cheers!
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