Nica what! (part 2)

We have now made it to LA alive. 2 days of heavy travelling on buses and planes has taken its toll on us. Having left San Juan del Sur has really made us realise what a freaking awesome time we had there. Yes, it may have been taken over by Westerners to a large extent, but it was still totally worth it!
The town being very close to the Costa Rican border clearly affected the prices compared to rest of Nicaragua, but it also made life pretty comfortable there. The selection of food was mind-blowing, ranging from pizzerias to burger joints and sandwich bars, and the fact that most people spoke English was rather refreshing, as sad as it sounds. But after eating nothing but chicken and rice and stuttering shitty our Spanish for weeks we really appreciated this place.

San Juan del Sur from the hilltop

 Coconut curry in a pineapple. Hell yeah. 

Attempted to cure our hangover with the famous Nacho Libre burgers, when in the end this protein overdose probably made it worse..

The first 2 nights there were a pretty interesting experience as we decided to stay at a popular party hostel called Naked Tiger. Located up the hill a bit further away from town and run by a bunch of Americans, this young people's hotspot never slept. The first night we unofficially attended the infamous Dirty Pub Crawl so sleeping was really not a problem. Unsurprisingly the next day was spent with a banging headache and overall shit feeling so we decided to have an easy night and catch some rest. Now that did not happen. The party bingers decided to never end their rave so the next morning the decision to leave the place was pretty easy after getting 0 hours of sleep. And thank God we did! We moved next door to Casa de Olas, where our friend Luke from Bocas had just got a job at. We ended up staying at this ''hostel'' (more like a kickass guesthouse where you became a part of the family) for 6 nights and if we could have, we totally would have stayed there for even longer.

Most days we spent by the pool overlooking the ocean from the top of the hill, hanging out with the pet monkey Buzz, chilling with some awesome people who we will surely reunite with at some point in our lives, and eating delicious food. Tony went surfing a few times while I worked on my tan. We also did what most people end up doing once they actually want something to do, climbing up the Jesus, which is pretty much a mini version of the big one in Rio de Janeiro.

 Bros at Jesus

 First time ever zip-lining. Great fun! (although you should really learn how to brake)

 MONKEY TIME! the peak of my every day was spending time with Buzzie.

Casual sunset from Casa de Olas. This place really is the bomb!

On our last night we all ended up having a craaazaay party at the hostel bar as most of us were leaving the next day. I mean, at what hostel can you do a line of dozen shots with the 60-year-old Aussie owner (who is more like 20), jump in the pool with her and dance your ass off until you pass out? So simply due to the most chilled out and insanely fun atmosphere, if you go to San Juan and do not stay at this place, you are missing out big time!

The best posse at the best hostel ever 

Next day's journey back to Costa Rica though, was far from fun...Words cannot express what a hassle it is to cross a national border in Central America! No signs, no one speaking a word of English, about 10 different lines and tourist fees (tourist tax when exiting a country??) and all kinds of paper work while your carrying 30 kilos of weight over your shoulders in 30 degrees heat may give you a hint how much patience you need to deal with it. This with a hangover? Again, no words..Should've really taken some pictures of the craziness.

Anyway, after 12h of sitting on non-AC buses, waiting, sweating, and starving we finally made it San Jose! Speaking of hassle, San Jose airport the next day is whole other story..Let's just say where happy to be enjoying some American lifestyle luxury where things run fairly smoothly and you don't have to constantly worry about getting ripped off everywhere you go. Now a few days in LA (currently in Venice Beach, where it is sadly raining) before jumping on a plane to Chinaland.  

Totally recommended link: http://www.casa-de-olas.com/Less recommended link (unless looking to get fucked up every single day and night): http://nakedtigerhostel.com/

Nica what! (part 1)

Well it’s been a while since our last post and we are now back in San José, Costa Rica for one night getting ready to leave in the morning.

After we spent a couple of nights in the old colonial town of Granada in Nicaragua, it was time to head to the Island of Ometepe, which is made up of two volcanoes. The ferry ride over was 4 hours and pretty comfortable. Of course we had to buy the most expensive tickets being tourists but it was still pretty cheap. The view of the volcanoes was amazing as they came into view. The fun started when we got off at the dock and were ushered into the nearest minivan, which was overflowing with people and some poor 7 ft German guy had to sit on the roof. Not sure traffic laws apply here and due to bad roads the suspension bottomed out several times.

After staying at a couple of uninteresting places around the big volcano we chose to head down and stay at Merida on the southwest of the island which we heard good things about. Buses on the island sometimes decide not to run but luckily we got a lift with an American couple going our way. The roads got worse and we passed more and more little shack villages until we arrived at Hacienda Merida. This place had a great atmosphere and plenty of things to do but also a great place to just chill out in a hammock. We chose to hike halfway up the smaller volcano to the San Ramon waterfall, which turned out to be quite a hardcore 6 hour trek in 30 degree heat. We were not exactly prepared but somehow we made it back without getting lost or dying of heat stroke.

Romance at the waterfall

 Before Petra's feet broke out in about 10 blisters

One of the numerous pretty sunsets at Ometepe

Jurjen, our Dutch friend from Bocas del Toro, joined us at the hostel and we decided to do a bit of kayaking. First to Monkey Island where apparently if you get too close the monkeys WILL jump on you and bite you. It’s true they did look pretty damn angry. After a bit of lunch it was 1 and a half hours kayaking along the coast to the river that runs between the two volcanoes. This place was so tranquil and it was so nice to just drift though the trees in the water and watch the animals. A few more monkeys made an appearance here. The way back was timed perfectly and allowed a great view of the sunset over Lake Nicaragua.

Petra's very first kayak, and already doing better than Tony!

Angry monkeys guarding their island

River kayaking, team work success!

It was discovered that the main food to be found was rice, beans, plantain chips and some sort of meat. It gets pretty boring very quickly especially as there is no sauce, so dry. The local restaurant in Merida was entertaining. Sitting down we had several animals running round the place, turkeys and a pig with a leash around its neck to name a few. A local riding a motorbike through the restaurant was common and we were treated to the topless fat owner with his trousers undone chasing the turkeys round the table threatening to turn them into a stew. This is all normal for here! After 5 days on the island we felt it was time to say goodbye and get a ferry back to the mainland, so we headed to San Juan del Sur, a surfer village on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. This place was far from the tranquil, authentic Ometepe, but now we really need to hit the airport! So will return with stories from Gringoville once we settle in LA. Holla!

Our ride from Merida to the ferry on an old American school bus

Finally an escape from the Caribbean Ibiza!

For the past 10 days we have been residing in a surfer's paradise in Panama called Bocas del Toro (Mouths of the bull?). Since our last post, we moved into another hostel on the main street of Bocas Town. We really had no choice in choosing it as thousands of tourists and Panamanians decent upon this area for New years. We became close friends with people in the hostel and the nights leading up to and including new years consisted of quite a bit of drinking. (When the severe downpours hit there was really not a lot else you could do). Rum was obviously the drink of choice being in Central America.

 New Year's Eve at the infamous Aqua Lounge. Ron y piña, por favor?

The days when the sun came out were spent at one of the beaches on the main island (Isla de Colon) or on the close island of Bastimentos. A short water taxi ride would get us to any of the other islands, just make sure they come back for you because its a long swim. The beaches are ridden with coconut trees and at one beach we saw starfish and even a wild dolphin!

We became used to the way things work in central America, that is, incredibly slowly. Waiting 50 minutes for 2 drinks at a bar was clearly normal as well as waiting 40 minutes for 4 people to make a sandwich at a local deli. Queues do not exist and people are always trying to scam you out of as much money as physically possible rather than rely on repeat customers. This is to be expected though as people here are a lot poorer than most of the tourists and travellers who come through.

Food can be found for cheap here and the common dish in the local joints is meat, rice and beans. Everything you need for $4. After new years we had to escape as money still seemed to go very quickly here and so we would head for the border of Costa Rica.

Us at Red Frog Beach

A sloth chilling out. These guys only come down from the tree once a week to poop!

Our hike down to starfish beach

Attempting to harvest coconuts off a palm tree using a big log

Romantic beach picture

A 30 minute water taxi ride got us to the mainland and then we had to get to the bus terminal. The bus left at 10am and so we had 25 minutes to do a 30 minute journey. Luckily we had the most mental taxi driver who decided he would get us to the bus no matter if it cost all our lives on the way. Double overtakes on a blind bend at 120km/h was really fun. He did get us there on time though :). We threw our bags on and were able to pay the $14 each on board.

An hour or so on a non-air conditioned bus and we were at the border and told to leave the bus. We had to get stamped out of Panama. True Central American style there was no queue and no one knew what was going on with hundreds of people everywhere and only one guy stamping passports. We got the stamp after 2hr of waiting and made our way walking across the old railway bridge that was the crossing. The Costa Rican side was less hassle with an actual queue and an official looking building. Was glad to see our bus was there to greet us and hadn't disappeared.

Getting some fresh juice on the Panama/Costa Rica border

The bus got us to San Jose which was just going to be a stop-over for us before heading up the Granada, Nicaragua. San Jose was not the nicest place and after a couple of nights there we eventually got an 'executive' bus up to Granada. The bus company helped with this border crossing and all went pretty smoothly. We even got fed on the bus and got to watch horrible Spanish dubbed movies. We are now in Granada and all is well......except we left a bag on the bus and it will have ended up in Managua 1hr away.....oops!