Central America 7-24-08

Well I am wrapping up with Central America and I'm sure some of you are interested in what my plans for the rest of my trip include. I am planning on spending 3-4 months in South America and from there I am going to decided if I am going to buy an around the world ticket. I have planed my trip out and my direction of travel will completely change after studying weather and other factors. I have also decided that if I am going to do it, it is going to take me at least a year from when I finish up with South America. My trip would go like this.....Fly from South America to China arriving in October/November I would spend 6 months traveling from China on land all the way to India. I would need 5 weeks for Nepal and India and from there I would fly to South Africa. I would spend 1 month in South Africa, fly to Egypt spend 1 month going all the way to Jordan. This time frame would put me in Europe around July/August 2009 and I want to buy a motorcycle to tour Europe for 3 months. From there my flight would bring me home before the holidays. If I have the energy to do it after South America I am going to go for it. I am 80% sure this is my plan, although it's weird to think that that would be another 15 months to go. As far as my budget goes here is a cap of what my first 3 months have cost me! I have spent 4k so far and I still have 24k left. After breaking out my costs and talking to people who have traveled in all these areas I am going to be short a couple thousand dollars which should be easy to pay off when I come home!
THANKS TO WHO EVER IS GOING TO GIVE ME AN INTEREST FREE LOAN!.....MOM

Panama City, Panama

Welcome to crime central! Like all the other capitols there is a ton of crime going on right outside the hostel that I am staying at. This is one place I would say not to avoid though. Here in Panama I took a tour of the Panama Canal and thought that it was awesome! The city also has some other really interesting buildings to see and a lot of history behind it. My plan is to catch a boat through San Blas Islands and into Cartagena, Columbia. I have got a lot of emails concerning me not going to Columbia, but I have talked to so many people about it and I have heard so many more issues everywhere but Columbia. Everyone is saying that Columbia is going over the top really trying to get more tourist back into their country and half the people coming from South America say that Columbia was one of their highlights of South America. I really don't have too much time to spend there and I really only plan on going to the very popular well traveled areas. I set sail Wednesday July, 23 for 5 days and I am moving onto a new continent! YEAH!

Bocas Del Toro, Panama

If it's the beach vibe that you dig along with somewhere entertaining to go every night, Bocas is definitely a place that you would enjoy to go. In Bocas Del Toro I decided to invest 3 days of my time to get certified for SCUBA.............. again.... since I never finished my dives years ago and all the classes that I had took were now expired. I was glad that I did take the classes because it had been so long that I really didn't remember everything that I needed to, plus it came with 6 dives all at the cost of $200 dollars. Although the diving was fairly murky, we saw a shipwreck and as I came over the top of a sunken ship I saw a fish right by my head that was definitely the biggest fish I have ever seen in my life! It had to weigh 3-400lbs and even the dive instructor who dives there every day was saying that was a rare site to see. Unfortunately while I was there a guy staying in the hostel next door to where I was staying died while swimming in the ocean. Bocas is a place most people traveling through Central America funnel to, and from the time I got to and left Bocas I had ran into at least 25 people that I had met over the past 2 months. I am not sure if I had met him but my condolences go out to his friends and family back home. They have a lot of warnings about the rip tide out where he was and I guess it happens a few times a year, got to be careful! Well, you can't achieve life by avoiding death I guess. Visiting some of the beaches out in Bocas Del Toro are just ok, but there are a few that you can take a boat out to that are as pristine as it gets and...really what you would imagine if you were to think of paradise. I met a couple friends that were from Colorado, hung out and relaxed, and ate a ton of ice cream during my visit to Bocas. On a last note while leaving I ran into the guys from California that had one of their bags stolen on the bus in Costa Rica. He had a new passport, a better attitude, and was still out to finish his trip! Good luck Matt and Jeff.

Folding Leaf

I was walking through some weeds and when I looked back I thought that it was weird that all the weeds looked crumpled up. When I looked closer I discovered that they fold up when you touch them! CHECK IT OUT!

Boquete, Panama 7-12-08

Well I´ve reached my 6th country now and my first stop is in Boquete, Panama. On first arrival I was not overly impressed but after spending the day walking around I felt it was a worthy place to stop. They have quite a few free things to do and things cost a lot less here. On my stop here I took a tour of a garden, walked up to see the waterfall, and found some people rock climbing the rocks and decided to join in! Tomorrow I am going to take a tour of a coffee plant and go to the hot springs. After that I plan to head onto Bocas Del Toro on the Caribbean coast.

San Isidro, Costa Rica 7-11-08

Although I was just passing through San Isidro I have to say that there is something that I liked about this little town. The park was beautiful and it just seemed that people cared and took care of the place. It was also nice to be out of a place that is packed with tourist and more into the culture of Costa Rica. In the morning I am catching a bus into David, Panama and then headed up into Boquete.

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Lucky for Bobby he didn’t have any issues getting his flight home and I was ready to continue on with my journey. My next stop in Costa Rica was to see the Pacific coast in the town Manuel Antonio. The National Park in Manuel Antonio was a great place to see a beautiful coastline and the park has an amazingly wide diversity of wildlife in it. We saw a turtles, monkeys, Jesus Christ lizards, a two toed sloth, colourful butterflies, and all inside a pristine forest. In the hostel in Manuel Antonio I met a couple of guys from California and we hung out for a few days touring the park, and hanging out at the beach. We headed out of Manuel Antonio towards San Isidro at the same time and after being on the bus for less then 1 hr of a 4 hr bus ride we noticed that someone got off the bus with Matt´s bag, which had absolutely everything that he had in it. I felt horrible for him as he stressed out wondering what he was going to do since his friend with him (Jeff´s) debit card was not working and they had no way of getting money. I promised that I would stick with them until we got something figured out. Luckily when we got to San Isidro there was no activity on his credit cards yet and Jeff´s debit card was working. It was a bummer that they now had to lose a huge part of their vacation going back to San Jose to get another passport and figure out something to get him by for the next 17 days. I can´t believe that we had a bag stolen from 3´above our heads and it is amazing how gutsy theses criminals are down here! GOOD LUCK GUYS!

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Getting into La Fortuna we decided to go see the waterfall and possibly hike up to see a crater above the waterfall. The waterfall was amazing and as we got in and tried to swim to the waterfall I found that it was nearly impossible to swim underneath it because the water was pushing you back too fast. We spent a few hours there swimming and having fun and somewhere along the way we decided to go check out a free swimming hole that was on our way back. Instead of taking a cab we walked 2 miles back and found the swimming hole that a local was telling us about. It had a rope swing that would swing you way out into the middle of the river and you would drop from about 20´ up. That evening we took a tour to go see the live lava flow from the volcano Arenal which included a stop along a river that was fed from a hot spring. The tour was a lot of fun, but because it was cloudy out we didn’t get to see more then a few red dots of lava from far away. The volcano is one of the most active volcano’s in the world and it has been erupting for about the last 50 years! With little time left Bobby needs to get back to the airport so we need to head back to San Jose. We spent one evening in San Jose, gambled again, and we both left $20 up! The only miss-hap that we had was when we got off the bus into San Jose some Jerk unzipped my pack and stole my tracking devise. I am sorry to inform you all that I will no longer carry it! I had a great time though and THANKS FOR COMING TO VISIT BOBBY!

Monte Verde, Costa Rica 7-4-08

Not being quite sure if Bobby was going to get on the flight I decided to take it easy for a few days in Monte Verde. Getting caught up with laundry can be a major pain in the ass and a costly thing too. I find myself waiting until everything that I have is completely dirty before I want to pay to have some stranger wash my clothes for more then what it would cost me at home. I spent most my time relaxing and hiking through the cloud forest of the Monte Verde Reserve. Bobby arrived late on Friday evening and the next morning we got up to do a canopy tour. If you don´t know what this is, it´s nothing more then steel cables stretched across the forest and you hang your self from a pulley and slide across the forest. IT IS SO MUCH FUN!!! They had about 16 cables with the longest cable being almost 2500´and at least 400´above the ground. As you slide across these cables at around 30mph the view is unbelievable! They also have what they call a Tarzan swing which you fall about 40´before you start your swing. I was surprised to how hard it jerks you and how close you get to the platform at the bottom too. This definitely is up there as one of my favourite things so far. There is so much to do in Monte Verde and although it is expensive and I´m sure I´ll be back so I didn´t want to spend a small fortune on all the activities. That afternoon I planned a jeep boat jeep tour which was a short cut to La Fortuna. Boy was that a joke! It was not a tour and it should of been called expensive bus boat bus ride. The only good thing about this trip is you get a great view of Volcan Arenal across the lake!

San Jose, Costa Rica

One of my greatest friends and definitely my right hand while I travel (Teresa) has been trying to get down to Costa Rica to visit me. She sent me her flight information and I promised that I would be at the airport when she came in. Although she was flying stand by, I decided to just get to the airport in hopes that she would get on the flight. I was not aware that I was a day late from when she was supposed to get there because her flight left at 1230am and I was running a day behind. As I was sitting on the bus I started to really stress out that maybe I was running a day behind and there was no way for me to figure out anything while I was on the bus. As I got to the airport I found out that I was late and fortunately but unfortunately she did not get on the flight because it was full. Another friend (Bobby) was trying to catch the same flight with her and also did not make it. Teresa did not have the time off to try to catch the next flight, but Bobby was going to try to catch it on Friday. I decided that I did not want to wait around the airport for a few days so I decided to go to Monte Verde, Costa Rica and wait from there. For the one night I spent in San Jose I stayed at Hostel Pangea which was a pretty cool place to hang out. I also went to the Casino to gamble a little and won $10!........YEAH.

Isla De Ometepa, Nicaragua

If you were to take a boat across Lago de Nicaragua it would take 14 hours. Somewhere in the middle is an island that has two Volcano´s on it. The ferry ride costing about 2 dollars, was an interesting adventure with about 200 people packed on a boat across the lake. This area is breath taking beautiful and it looks like it belongs in a fairytale or fantasy novel. I spent one night in Altagracia which is definately a city in need of some major upkeep. I took a tour around the island and met some nice folks from good ol Colorado. On our tour we saw some petroglyphs, hot springs, and a ton of free roaming farm animals. While swimming in the hot springs I cut my foot open on a lava rock which has been struggling to heal now for 2 weeks. I would have enjoyed to spend a few more nights here on the other side of the island but I am trying to get to San Jose in hope to meet up with a friend or two from Colorado. I took another ferry off the island and spent the evening in the little town of Rivas, Nicaragua. From there I caught a bus onward to San Jose Costa Rica!

Granada, Nicaragua

My bus arrived into Managua and we caught a 45 minute shuttle to Granada. I was actually surprised to how nice Managua was compared to Tegucigalpa. Finding my way into Granada I felt like I was in a different version of Antigua in that both cities are very old and have a ton of history. Granada is the oldest colonial city in Nicaragua found in 1954 and walking around Granada you can see that they have many structures that have withstood years of battles. Nicaragua is not known to have the most stable government at this time, and it is expected to get worse here soon. Granada is also located on Lago De Nicaragua which is the largest lake in the western hemisphere expect the Great Lakes seperating USA and Canada. It is also said that it is the only lake in the world to have fresh water sharks in it! Other then touring around the city for a couple of days, I caught a ferry to visit an island in the middle of the lake that has 2 volcano´s on it.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Cutting across the larger part of Honduras on a bus I ended up spending an evening in Tegucigalpa. The capitol of the country which is located in the center, is not a place I would recommend to visit. It is possible that the area that I was in was just the bad side of town, but I didn´t see a good side of town as I passed through the city either. This is the first place where I felt that I did not belong and spent my evening confined to my prison style hotel near the bus station. While on the bus I met up with Enrique ....a guy from Mexico and we stuck together for a few days until we found our way out of the area that we were in. Ironically enough I ran into another friend (Pasquel) for the 7th time in the last month leaving a restaurant in the middle of the city at about 630am. It is amazing how many times you run into the same people on the same path all along the way.