Boca, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica week 5ish

The Sand Castel I made that slowey was eaten by the Tide

Isla Bastimentos

Im the other half of the palm tree.

The ray in about 1 foot of water.

Bocas del drago aka the star fish beach

After we left the cool little hut over the water on Isla Bastimentos we headed back over to Isla Colon. We stayed there for about 2 more nights and didn’t do all that much except play poker which did not work out to well for either of us. I don’t think I saw more than 20 face cards for the night and once I actually got a hand I got screwed over. Oh well it was not my night. Prior to playing poker we stopped off at a casino where we played roulette and also didn’t win. After losing about $45 I total for the night I figured that would be the last time going to one of those casinos on our trip and that we needed to get right to Nicaragua and basically skip Costa Rica. We really had planned to do that from the beginning. Im sure we will spend a week or 2 in Costa Rica on the way down but its really expensive.

Our travel day consisted of a boat to the mainland a walk to the a bus stop. That bus lasted approximately 1 hour which drove through millions of banana plantations for many miles. We eventually reached the border which was very simple nothing more than a scan of the pass port and a big ‘slap of the new stamp’ After waiting for 3 hours for our bus on the other side of the bridge 6.5 hours later we arrived in San Jose

We stayed in San Jose at a pretty nice place called Hostel Toruma which overlooked lots of the city. We stayed there for 2-3 nights and walked around the city. There was not to much to see but we managed to make it somewhat interesting. I also bought a machete at one of the artist markets its fairly mini but cool! After becoming over the city we took one of the nicer busses for $21 called the Tika buss. The buss took approximately 5.5 hours and made a 1.5 hour border stop. Then we had to take a taxi from rivas all the way to our final destination San Juan Del Sur Nicaragua.

San Juan Del Sur: After the many long travel days we have just been hanging out, lots of beach visits and movies and making final college decisions, which have been tough. I even have had the chance to run here but it has been damn!!!!!!!!!!!!HOT. But it has rained a few nights which has kept the evening cool. We have been watching lots of the hokey games just because I really have nothing going on. The little town has definitely been the best so far this trip. Its surrounded by mountains and has a 1 mile stretch of sand out front. We currently are staying at Mama Panch the coolest hostel for only $7 US a night. Food in the town is not the cheapest but just eat a jar of nutela and you will star right on that budget. Just kidding but that’s what I did.

We will be here for a night or 2 more, then we will probably head off to Isla Omatepe.

I soon will post more information about yesterdays fishing trip and more pictures of San Juan del sur.

Adventures in the jungle & Bocas Del Toro

This really has been one lazy week. After leaving bouquet we took a bus to a hostel in the middle of the jungle; it was called The Lost and Found Lodge or something like that. The hostel was run by 8 volunteers from all over the world (mainly Canadians and Europeans) who just needed a place to stop off and work for free for a bit. They do receive significant discounts on tours and stuff, and a free cool place to stay. It did seem like a very chill and like a fun place for them to stay.

One of my favorite parts of the hostel was the huge beds in the dorm rooms. Generally in hostels there are rows of bunks and I always choose the top for some reason but these beds were extra cool, queen size bunks with not 2 beds but 3! So yes I had to climb about 16 feet just to get some sleep! It was cool. The hostel also had a foosball table and each night they held foosball tournaments and there were about 5 different rounds until there was a winning team. Each losing team had to buy a beer for the winners and yes I was in debt after a while. Probably because beer is not my forte and I didn’t have much of a modivation. Although my foosballing put me in debt, we did happen to play poker!! I took 2^nd/6 the first night which was fun and I should have won but Aaron kept going all in every hand and it was annoying me so I just settled for 2^nd and quit because it was 6am oops! The 3^rd night we played again and I was catching no cards what so ever but won enough tiny pots to get me in 2^nd again but the British guy was actually flying to Vegas in a few and told me to just keep his winning and being a stingy backpacker I was not going to turn down that offer. Plus the dude is traveling on the GBP, I wish I was. And once he said im going to win the $15 in a hand I was like alright what evvvsssss. So I won about $21 off my expenses. The hostal was great had a kitchen we could use and we could also buy food and stuff.

Activities: The 2^nd day we did the hostel’s treasure hunt which sounds much more exciting than the crappy explanation I just typed. Me and Aaron went on this jungle trek with a Swedish girl and Canadian guy who was pretty cool. So the entire trek took about 5hrs and consisted of a steep incline for the first hour walking through the middle of a jungle solving clues. Then we walked flat for a bit having to hop over huge tree roots and to jump fallen trees and all kinds of crazy stuff. Finally after the 2^nd hour we began to descend down the steep mountain. Eventually we hit a river and we had to cross several times to locate the clues on the other side of the bank. Then we had to cross back climb a steep hill and then re cross the river and later we arrived in a cave. I can’t even remember how many times the 3 of us had fallen down the trail. Aaron however managed to stay on his feet for the entire treck. The cave that we had to go to was kind of creepy and up until a few months ago a lady had lived there. She even observed a jaguar eating a sloth. Anyways hours later we arrived back at the hostel and the last clue was in the kitchen and we had to find the one eyed monkey and if we did they would give us a bottle of rum. We did find it but I figured the other 3 would enjoy it more than me so I left them to it.

We also went to the hot springs which was alright, Aaron I think would say it was a disappointment but I don’t know it was interesting. There were 3 pits which consisted of mud and really hot water which was fun for 20 minutes then I felt as if I was cooking. We then walked down to the river which was much nicer than the hot springs although it was quite cold! The tour was only $10 and we could stop off at the grocery story which was nice, and we stopped off at the internet café so I could deal with my school since the Royal Mail had lost my 1^st test.

Another favorite activity back at the hostel was no not walking up the steep trail to get back there which sucked with the huge ass pack, Was playing with rocky the crazy Kinkajou. He was Similar to a monkey/cat thing <>

After deciding to leave the Lost and found hostel we made the long journey down the mountain with our stuff. Busses were supposed to come each hour and after seeing the first go by we had decided to wait a few minutes before heading down the trail. After the 20 minute hike of trying not to fall on my face we arrived on the road and waited. We stood there and saw the bus pass and tried to flag it down but it didn’t seem to want to wait for us. We hung out for about 30 minutes and decided we were sick of waiting in the hot sun. We soon began to stick out our thumps in hopes for a ride and sure enough within a few minutes we were off to Alimante where we would take a boat to Isla colon and the city of Bocas. I expected it to be a very chill night but that quickly changed as we decided to hit up the aqua lounge.

Bocas was a great little town with lots of things going on and definitely had the crazy-party Caribbean vibe. I preferred the chill side of Bocas such as beaches and that kind of stuff. We stayed on Isla Colon for 3 days and did almost nothing. We did go to Bocas del Drago which was a beach with hundreds of starfish. We also saw a few rays that came into almost the shore line to eat the little bait. The water was really murky and kind of dirty so we didn’t spend too much time there. I almost forgot to mention that I found an Indian food place which was damn good. It was a bit pricy but I think I deserved a little present.

After leaving Isla colon we headed to Isla Bastimentos. Although there is not much of a town here the beaches are spectacular compared to Colons. The closest beach is approximately a 45 minute trek through the jungle but had a huge strip of sand and consisted of a fairly rough current. I stayed for the day and Aaron left in the middle. I decided to make a big Castle that soon got eaten away by the tides. I wasn’t very keen on hiking through the jungle by myself to get back but it really was not all that bad. Today( Monday March 19^th) I decided to hike over to Red Frog beach and I had to hike the same path as I did yesterday in addition to about another 40 minute extension. I did see several Red and Yellow frogs that were approximately ( ) <>

Im loving the place we are staying! It right over the water and we have a little pier and several hammocks, a communal kitchen, a kayak we can rent which me an Sebastian a German guy decided to try out. We also attempted to fish off our pier using a drop line and pasta as our bait and we were quite successful. I caught 4 within a few minutes and asked if we could eat them, at first I was told yes but about 10 minutes later was told I couldn’t weird and I was hungry but soon I settled for tuna and some pasta.

Tomorrow I think we are making the long trek into Costa Rica which will be interesting. Aaron is really not looking forward to this because of the cost and I don’t really care. But I am excited to re-visit Arenal the volcano.

Recent Movies I have

The informant BOOOOOOOOOOOORING

I love you man Alright

Changling Great

Zeigest Please Watch

Zeigest Addendum definitely a must see please watch

2012 apocalypse < style="mso-spacerun: yes"> movie. Now I want to see the actual movie.

Las Lajas, David, Boquete

Nasty Battle wound!

The im glad to still be alive but soon to be in alot of pain smile.

The Margay lion thing!

The crazy brown monkeys








The little brown monkeys loved their stomaches to be pet and when one was being pet and the other was they would get jelous. And leap over!

Crazy cute money that tried to bite everything including the fence me and the bench.

White monkey also wanted the straw which he ended up getting.

The coolest little bird came to say hello!

Las Lajas

El Mundo Bar

The cool open air place we stayed at on the beach.

After leaving the Surf City of Santa Catalina we hoped a buss to Las Lajas which is also known for its surf. The waves were much smaller but I still had tons of fun body surfing. The town seemed great and I was glad to be able to just relax and do nothing. We stayed in Las Lajas for 3 days and 1 night which was definitely a little too short for such a great place.

The first place we stayed at had a resto/bar but we ate elsewhere. It definitely had the best beds ever though, not necessarily the structure though. After spending many of our meals at the El Mundo Bar we realized on the second floor they had beds, big ones in fact! We decided for $2 cheaper and for a small price of $8 total we could be sleeping in the huge open air pilapa that was right on the beach. At our first hostel I hear loud screeching noises and was like what the heck is that. I later looked outside and saw a mama puppy with 8 new puppies born that same day.

So we headed back to our other hostel to grab our bags and saw Rudey an ex islander who lives in Las Lajas. What perfect timing it was! We loaded our huge bags into his giant white truck which still had his California Licence plates. This was a lot better than caring our portable casas across the town. We had been in contact with him so we expected to see him at some point, but timing could not have been more perfect. Aaron and Rudy sat and enjoyed a few beers at $0.65 a piece while I enjoyed my huge 2 liter bottle of water at $2.50. Why is water more expensive than beer? Generally I go through about a gallon of water a day that’s how hot it is. Later we went to the Las Lajas resort to eat some lunch. I had a fish sandwich which was good. That evening I went for a 3 mile run along the HUGE shore which stretches about 5 miles. I honestly felt like I was a shower that’s how hot and sweaty my adventure was. Later that night I was on my laptop doing some home work and the power went out. The only light in the area was my lap top light. Within seconds tons of jungle bugs shot for my light. I thought I accidently ate one so I went to spit off the deck about 10 minutes later I realized there was people underneath, “oops” I think they came just before I spat in that area or It went over them and they didn’t notice.

The following morning we woke up around 7:30am to check If we got an email from Rudy. Rudy also had been heading to the city of David which had been our next stop. It had worked out perfectly. We drove about an hour and a half and got a personally narrated tour about the plantations and trees and different Panamanian stuff. It was so great to have met Rudy the ex islander from Catalina. Thanks Rudy!

Yes so we were in David In Hostel Bambu and it sure is was in David, about 102ish. The hostel is overall great. It also has a pool which has been nice. And we are sleeping in the dorms at $8 a night. Last night Tuesday April 6 I worked extra hard to finish my classes and inf act I did. So I am an official High School Graduate, and got a 4.0 for my Sr. Year. Freedom! David seemed like there was not to much going on and not all that exciting. We did go to the food marked which was so cool. I got a Pineapple 2 bananas and a thing of lattice at only $0.90 I even had to say Cuanto questa like 3 times because I thought it was just my poor Spanish but I guess I was correct.

The morning prior to leaving David we made Banana pancakes topped with fresh pineapple with a side of eggs and it was DAMN GOOD. At almost all of the hostels they give you the batter for pancakes which is nice. But its everywhere and you really con only have so many pancakes. The Panamanians love there pancakes like the Argentineans like their dulce de leche or cresants.

We then took a 1 hour cab ride to Boquete for $15 total which was not all that bad. We currently are staying at the Mamalina hostel for $11 which is a good deal for the amazing kitchen we get to use and big complexes. Today we have went to the animal refuge and got to play with the monkeys and view all sorts of rescued birds. It was really awesome. We met the lady who was in charge of the place who was Canadian and we made arrangements to maybe come and colenteer on our way back down into panama.

The monkeys were hilarious they will take anything they possibly can pull through their enclosure. If your hand was near the cage they would run up and grab your hands just so they can try and bite you. But they sure were cute! At one point I was taking a picture of them and they grabbed the camera string, but lackey I had a good grip on the camera.

Today April 9, 2010 we moved up the street to the Hostal Boquete and oh what a day! So we checked in droped off our stuff and we decided it would be a good idea to rent moped scooters. I thought it would be fun and would be an experience and boy was I right. I packed my back pack took only what I needed, water, camera ,cash, license. After trying to get used to the stupid thing for like 30 minutes driving it around the hostel parking lot I was doing just fine. We finally pulled out onto the street and I was surprisingly making progress. We started to drive up many hills which were fun, the turns were kind of scary but I managed to hang tight. The only thing I was doing wrong was trying to break and accidently hitting the gas, because the stupid thing are so close which can obviously create problems. After reaching about 900ft there were several turns. I tried to slow down for the sharp turn by pressing the right break and accidently made the speed thing go forward because they are so damn close. I then tried to lean into the turn and the bike fell to the floor and I slid for like 10 ft and got some gnarly road rash. The scariest part was I was only about 5 feet from falling off the cliff. What an adventure! Im still alive just sliced and bruised all over the place.

Tomorrow we are heading back to David and I may get an X-ray for the left wrist depending on how I feel. We then are going to head out to the lost and found lodge. The lost and found lodge is a hostel in the middle of the woods with tons of hikes, hot springs and other cool stuff to do not to mention its in the middle of the jungle.

San Blas Islands And Santa Catalina Panama

San Blas Islands

After leaving Panama City we took a 3 hour buss at 5 am to the San Blas islands. We were packed in a small car built for 6 with 8 people, one of which had too much to drink the previous night. The roads were steep and windy and yes because of him we had to stop and pull over for him to barf at least 5 times throughout the trip. It wasn’t to much of a big deal but was pretty annoying. We did have to stop and do border checks because technically we were not in panama but in on the islands of the Kuna tribe but there were no issues at the borders.

After arriving to the port which was nothing but an entrance into a muddy lagoon, we boarded a tiny vessel that looked as if it would not last too long above water with the amount of people and luggage that got in. The port area looked as if we were about to get on the Jungle cruise at Disneyland, Lots of palms and a nice island. After loading 12-16 people onto the 18ft skiff and tons of bags we began to embark through the lagoon. Soon we reached the ocean where we gained speed and within30-40 minutes we reached our island of Saniduke. The water was amazingly warm and of course as clear there appeared to be tons of underwater mushrooms and small kelp grass. It was ok snorkeling, but nothing like lovers cove on Catalina Island. There were lots of starfish and tons of tiny fish, which were fun to chase because the bigger ones would try and eat them. We also saw a fairly decent sized bat ray that I briefly looked at then swam quickly away.

On the first day of 3 we pretty much got all our stuff set up. We were given the choice to camp or stay in a cabana. We chose to camp in our tents because it was abo $8 off the cabana price of $20. So we ended up paying about $12 a night not including beverages. However it did include 3 meals a day which was definitely was 1 highlight of my time on the San Blas, not necessarily because of the taste but just because what we were eating was always a surprise. Each time it was time for a meal they would bow the conch horn and we would all run over and eat. We had a night of mystery meat which appeared to be a tough steak with rice. On the second day breakfast was my favorite, we received a pancake with a slice of American cheese on the side. For lunch we had chicken and rice and dinner was a seafood mix. They also forgot to give me my plate of food, which was not a big deal. I later made me some tune and crackers which is a key meal to keeping on my budget for this trip. The food really was not all that bad and it was nice that the Kuna ladies cooked us 3 meals a day.

As far as activities on the island there was always something going on. You could chill and read on the island In a hammock, play volleyball, snorkel. Those were pretty much the day activities! At night there was always a party, which was kind of fun. Night swims are always the best, the water remained hot while the air was began to cool off.(it was still pretty hot) I met tons of great people on the island tons of Germans and lots of other Europeans, about 8 Americans either studying at a Spanish school in Costa Rica or studying abroad. The island was only about ¼ of a mile in length you could pretty much walk around it within 4 minutes.

On the last full day we were given the option to go to Dog Island which was a lot of fun. There was a big sunken ship which had lots of coral and sea life surrounding the boat. The fish were obviously used to the people and didn’t really seem to care that you were following them. One of my favorite parts of the island was the crazy cool kitten that would climb the trees and chase after the sticks. At one point it climbed about 10 feet into the tree and then started crying for help, it was really funny.

Getting off the Island was really an adventure. We loaded the boat with about 16 people and luggage, Not to mention the water was pretty rough. I was sitting on the side of the boat because I was moved to help balance the middle. 1 minute in I realized there was no point in trying to stay dry. Each time we went up a wave Mother Nature was to return a big splash in my face. At least it was warm! Once we were about to enter the lagoon the boat stopped because it became wedged on a sand bar. After a few minutes of the driver and friends trying to pry us off the bar, all the guys were asked to jump out and help push us off. I soon began to realize I was crock bait. After a few seconds we got the problem fixed and soon we were back on our way. About 5 minutes later we arrived at the side of lagoon (port) where we hoped off, and then it began to poor.

Santa Catalina

After the 3 hour ride back to Panama City we had to wait about an hour to get on our 5 hour buss to Santa Catalina. We got some food and some cash from the ATM. Then we made an attempted to find our buss. We were not sure which plat form to enter so of course we asked. We were then directed to the other side of the station so me and my extra 80lbs were dragged along on my back and chest and kept trucking. As soon as we got there were told it was at a different platform. We did this several times until we covered each corner of the station and finally found the buss. The bus was tight each seat was filled but the 5 hour journey really was not all that bad. We were let off in Sona where we were going to stay the night but decided it was kind of sketchy so we would just head to Santa Catalina. We got in the taxi where we took the hour and half drive down to Santa Catalina. The drive was scary as hell you could not see anything but trees on the side of the roads and at one point the taxi drive stopped at a restaurant with his friend to grab a beer to go which was kind of scary. He almost hit a horse and a couple of random dogs. But hey we eventually made it and believe me I was relieved to arrive to have made it alive.

The first night we stayed in a place with 2 beds in a room which we paid $15 each for it was nothing special except the frog that was hanging out in the shower. He was pretty big too. The second night we also stayed in a room that was a lot less nice for about $9.5 each with air conditioning that worked about ½ the time at the same hostal. The hostal was right on the beach and could be really cool if they put some work into the place.

Over all Santa Catalina is a small town not too much going on but it known for its crazy surf. We went in the water yesterday which was nice. We stayed away from the bigger waves that were about 12 feet, but it was fun to watch the surfers ride those. Today we are moving to another hostal closer to town which is about $11.25 a night. Its at least a 1.5 mile hike which I’m not looking forward to doing with my 70-80 extra lbs in the 90 degree heat.

One of my favorite parts of Santa Catalina was the fruit I got for myself. I hacked up a pineapple and watermelon for only $3 total.

Ok yesterday we moved in closer to town so we can catch the early bus tomorrow morning. We have ridden the wave of Samona Santa so now we can basically travel without worrying about finding a place to stay. Today was nothing but a day at the internet café up loading stuff on my blog since I have not had internet for many days now. I pretty much wanted to let people know that I was alive. And damn there internet is so slow they must be making a fort ion off me but that’s fine whatever.

Im off to las lajas panama tomorrow and probably wont have access. So happy easter and I will talk to you all in a few days

The Beautiful San Blas

Aaron and the Hilarious breakfast on the san blas. (Nes Cafe, a pancake,a slice of American Cheese)

The boat to the San Blas islands on the Lagoon