Rough Start

Well i´d like to say that the start to our drive home has been awesome but that would be a lie.  We left Playas Del Coco early on the morning of the 25th and got to the Nicaragua border without any problems.  We were bombarded with people trying to help us and after spending a few hours at the border we shot out the other side thankful the day´s ordeal was over.  We went to put our Ipod on and noticed it was missing..... The guy who was helping us stole it without either of us noticing until he was gone.  Great start hey.  Note, never let the guys in your vehicle, we felt like idiots afterwards.  Our plan for the day was to go to Omotepe Island on lake Nicaragua. We were told by several people that there was one functional ATM on Omotepe which we tried to use unsucessfully..... meaning we had just enough money to get back off the island without seeing anything.  Great.  The worst is now over though.  We left and pushed on to Granada where we ate dinner, then went to Laguna de Apollo for the night.  We were planning on staying at the Monkey Hut which was the only affordable place on the lake but they were booked up for the night. Fantastic.  We went to a better (more expensive) hotel down the street called Selva Azul and after explaining our days tribulations the owner Tim showed us an unbelievable room with a private pool overlooking the lake.  We thought that it would be way too much but he gave us a great deal so we stayed 3 days, which was perfect.  We got professional massages down by the lake and really enjoyed the peaceful seclusion of the community. 

Next we crossed two borderes in one day, Honduras and El Salvador.  Crossing into Honduras went pretty smooth, except we ran out of money, so we paid our border assistants in Lizano Sauce, Coffee, and Cervezas. We are pretty sure we paid ¨tourist prices¨, becuase it cost alot more than we expected. We decided to get another helper for the El Salvador border, since they usually only cost $5to $10 and make the process alot easier. We found a nice guy who spoke perfect english to help us out. Everything went perfectly fine, until he asked us to pay him upwards of $70!!!! He said that he had personally paid off tips to the officials at the border in order to save us time, however the whole process still took the average 3 hours it always does.  When we finally, unhappily, handed over $40 he made us feel like garbage and was very ungrateful.  He also tried to tell us that if we gave him another $35 we wouldn´t have to pay anything to enter Guatemala (he explained that he would put us in the computer system as having paid already to save us time when we left), but considering we were in El Salvador, which is a completely different system than Guatemala, it made no sense and he sure wasn´t happy with us declining his oh so generous offer to ¨help us out¨. We have now decided that the help is not worth it. We can do it ourselves, and even if it takes a bit longer we wont end up walking away feeling disrespected, and completely taken advantage of.

We are on the Costa Balsamo, a string of beaches and surf towns along the pacific coast of El Salvador. We are planning on relaxing here for 4 or 5 days, which is much needed after our trip so far! Next we will be heading back into Guatemala, to Antigua. We will try to update again then.

Hasta Luego,

Chris and Nat

Itinerary for our Drive Home

Here is our approx. itinerary for our drive back home:

Mar 25 - Playas del Coco, CR to Omotepe Island, Nicaragua
Mar 26 - Omotepe
Mar 27 - Omotepe
Mar 28 - Omotepe to Granada, Nicaragua
Mar 29 - Granada to Cinandega, Nicaragua
Mar 30 - Chinandega
Mar 31 - Chinandega through Honduras to San Miguel, El Salvador
Apr 1 - San Miguel to Costa Balsamo, El Salvador
Apr 2 - Costa Balsamo
Apr 3 - Costa Balsamo
Apr 4 - Costa Balsamo to San Pedro, Guatemala
Apr 5 - San Pedro
Apr 6 - San Pedro
Apr 7 - San Pedro to San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico
Apr 8 - San Cristobal de las Casas
Apr 9 - San Cristobal to Puerto Escondido
Apr 10 - Puerto Escondido
Apr 11 - Puerto Escondido to Manzanillo
Apr 12 - Manzanillo to Sayulita
Apr 13 - Sayulita
Apr 14 - Sayulita to Mazatlan
Apr 15 - Mazatlan to Guyamas
Apr 16 - Guyamas to Tuson, Arizona
Apr 17 - Tucson to LA
Apr 18 - LA
Apr 19 - LA to San Fran
Apr 20 - San Fran
Apr 21 - San Fran to Eeureka
Apr 22 - Oregon Coast
Apr 23 - Oregon Coast
Apr 24 - Oregon Coast
Apr 25 - Washington
Apr 26 - Washington
Apr 27 - Washington
Apr 28 - Home to Victoria, BC :(

Which gives us two extra days since we have to be home by the 30th at the latest! So we don't expect to detour much from this plan!

Caribbean Dream

Well it’s been two whole days since my parents left the 33-degree heat of Costa Rica for the rainy, maybe 10-degree cold of Victoria.  It was amazing having them and my brother down to share the lifestyle for a while.  Nick was only here for a week and we managed to pack a lot into his trip.  Not in any order, we went zip lining through the rainforest canopy, lounged in hot springs at the base of a volcano, took a river boat to see all sorts of indigenous animals (including monkeys, crocodiles and iguanas), snorkeled around a well known and abundant local spot, went diving off the coast of playas del coco, went to a huge late night party in Liberia and traveled to Heredia to adopt a dog!  Talk about seeing and doing a lot in seven days!  I’m near sure my brother left happy with his one week Costa Rican experience.  The next week my parents and us kept it low key.  We went to a local pottery village, got a demonstration and bought some pieces from the artisans.  We also explored some other local beaches and did some dinners out.  It was nice for them and us to relax poolside with a beverage and a book. We miss you!

Now for the adventures since they left.  We left Coco the day after my parents flew home and we’re now counting the days until we have to leave Costa RicaL Driving through San Jose was chaotic and very dangerous…. I gotta say that I hate 3 lane roundabouts….  Just about killed a motorcyclist and got a few nasty honks.  I thought I knew how to drive?!?!  Once past San Jose, the road went up and up until we felt on top of the world with just a little guide rail stopping us from tumbling down a mountainside.  On one of the descents the guy behind me flashed his beams and signaled I had a flat tire, so I pulled off to check and there was a screw jabbed into the front left one…. Honestly with all the dirt roads and driving we’ve been doing I’m surprised this was “Bea’s” first flat.  I named the car Bea after she conquered the first major obstacle on the trip.  Lucky for us there was a local who pulled over and decided to be the one to change our tire! He was super quick and probably a mechanic or something for a living, I gave him 6 bucks for his effort and kindness.  We made it to Puerto Viejo by 7 at night and went out for some amazing thai curry.  Today we had our tire patched up; our spare bent back into shape (we damaged the rim a bit on the remainder of our bumpy dirt road journey yesterday) and it only cost us another 6 bucks! Pretty cheap I thought considering a new tire’s like 60!

Puerto Viejo is a beautiful and underdeveloped tropical paradise.  Most people ride bikes to get around and there are lots of local artisans who sell their own creations.  People are very friendly, rasta culture is predominant and the night scene is hopping. It’s our second night and we both got a really bad sleep last night so it'll be an early one.  Tomorrow will be the night to go out for drinks and meet some new friends.  We're also going to go to a chocolate factory and i'm hopefully not going to make myself sick. hehe

Until next time
Hasta luego
Chris

Dreading going home!

Natalie started planning the journey home today; I think we're going to be    PRESSED     FOR     TIME.....  It's a stretch but we're going to try to make it back comfortably in 33 days.  Some great friends are getting married on May 1st and we're going to try hounerably to make it home for their wedding.  We leave for home on the 25h of March and are gonna drive some long days but we're gonna enjoy our time and make it back! 
Before that we're going east again for a few days to Puerto Viejo, since it's only a 9 hour drive.  Our friend Andres might help lead the way for the day there and guide us through.  We'll stay two more nights than him, so we can have some couple time:)  With his help it should be amazing.  We'll also do a bit more surfing at Tamarindo since the waves are so good for beginers this time of year.

Gettin a little drunk now, adios amigos
hasta luego
Chris

Photo Update

Well we have a laptop with us now, so we have been able to upload all of our pictures! Here are some of our favourites from the past few weeks in Costa Rica:

Conchal Beach

Conchal Beach

Chris and our Costa Rican friend Andreas at our pool

At a turtle party in Playa Grande

Playa Flamingo

GO KIA RIO!!

Our new dog we adopted from an animal shelter, Nina Bean

Waterfall, Catarata de la Cortes

Nina Bean

Crocodile on the Palo Verde River

Iguana on Palo Verde

White Faced Monkey

The monkeys got on our boat!!! Chris feeding one

All ready for the zip-line

Zip-lining

Waterslide at Tabacon Hot Springs, Arenal Volcano

Tabacon

Costa Rican racoon

They came right up to us looking for food

Tabacon

The best view we got of Arenal Volcano, an active volcano, too bad it wasnt a clear day or we could have seen the lava and smoke

Howler monkey!