Christian June 26th, 2008
Our last stop in Belize was to Caye Caulker, a small island about an hour ferry ride from Belize City. We were lucky enough to grab the last double room at a favorite backpacker hostel located right on the beach. Our room had a huge king bed which took up the whole room and a nice fan, unfortunately, almost no windows except a little two foot one across the room. We would later learn that this equals hot nights with no sleep. The hostel has a dock right out into the water, and we promptly took advantage of the first sun we had seen in weeks and put on our swim suits to relax. Continue Reading »
Christian June 17th, 2008
After waiting outside of the travel agency for about an hour or so, our shuttle to San Ignacio finally arrived. It was a bumpy ride to the border of Belize. The border crossing was easy and we crossed into yet another country. Once in Belize, it was only about a 45 minute ride to the town of San Ignacio. We headed to our first choice place and got a room with tv and a private bath, although the bathroom doors consisted of saloon style swinging doors. Once settled in, we headed out for some much needed food and to book our tour. The tour that we chose to do here is one that takes you deep inside an ancient Mayan Cave. The cave is named Actun Tunichil Muknal or ATM for short. We were told it was an all day affair, so we went to bed early that night. Continue Reading »
Christian June 12th, 2008
Our trip to Flores required a 7:30am shuttle to the airport where we waited in line for 30 minutes to check-in. We were then informed that they had overbooked the flight and we would have to wait till the 5pm flight. We were bummed, we had nowhere to stay and had wanted to book a tour of Tikal for early the next day. The airline did offer to put us up in a hotel for the day and provide us with lunch. So we were resigned to a boring afternoon watching TV in a hotel room, when suddenly the lady says here are your tickets we have 2 seats available for you. Huh? You just spent the last 15 minutes explaining to us there was no room due to “weight restrictions” and now we can go? We didn’t question a good thing and headed to security where our jar of peanut butter was confiscated. Other people had coffee, food, etc and we were a little pissed because they also made us buy ziploc baggies for our deoderant. We had never encountered this safety precaution even in the U.S. So after a rough start to our morning, we waited some more at the gate, where the plane was almost a whole hour late taking off. It was a 56 seat plane with propellers. By now we are a little uncomfortable flying but the short 45 minute flight landed without incident. We grabbed a taxi who tried to overcharge us because of “gas prices” He wanted $6 for a 2km ride to the hostel, we argued that it wouldn’t take a whole tank of gas for 2km and in the end saved one whole dollar.
Our hostel luckily had one double room available which we took. We thought of it as a tree house. Continue Reading »
Christian June 9th, 2008
The five hour shuttle between Copan and Antigua was not all that bad. Besides paying the unofficial border crossing fee and not getting dropped off where we were supposed to, it was a breeze. The only odd part was we were not given an entry stamp into Guatemala, we were told our Honduras stamp was good for both countries. We figured we would find out if that was true when we left for Belize. We ended up staying in a place recommended by our guidebook. It was a little overpriced, but we were happy to have some cable TV for the rainy nights and a private bathroom. We were busy the first day we arrived. We managed to book a volcano tour for the next day, transportation to Lake Atitlan, and plane tickets to the Tikal Ruins. We spent the rest of the day walking a bit in the town of Antigua. It is a pretty colonial town, with tons of gringos but since it was raining we soon headed into the comfort of our hotel room…or so we thought… Continue Reading »
Christian June 6th, 2008
We woke up at 5am to leave the Bay Islands for Copan, Honduras, little did we know this was the start of a 14 hour travel day. We hailed down a taxi to take us to the ferry terminal. We forked over an expensive $25 for the 2 hour ride to the mainland. They had just built a new terminal and we guessed that was why the fare had doubled in the last year. So we finally board the ferry around 6:45am and are greeted by the mixed smells of lysol and puke. We had heard many horror stories of people puking on the ferry ride due to the choppy seas. We had also been told to sit on the bottom deck where the boat wouldn’t rock so much. Continue Reading »
Christian June 3rd, 2008
The Bay Islands, Honduras
We arrived into Roatan Airport nice and early on Saturday the 24th. It was very hot when we left the airport. After haggling for a good taxi price, we were on our way to the hostel/hotel that we had reservations at. They did not have our room ready, but said it would be ready in 15 mins, which was great. So in the meantime we took a walk down the main road in the West End. It is a sand road with restaurants, sovienir shops, and dive shops lining it. When we were back to the hotel, they led us to the room. It was super nice, complete with a kitchen and private bathroom. We even got to meet the local resident monkeys that they have on site. After dropping our bags and taking a quick break, we headed out to Coconut Tree Divers. Over email we had set up a refresher dive and a fun dive for Sunday. At the shop we met a couple of people and set up our advanced class for Monday as well. It seems like a great place to dive with. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the street and finding some groceries. We made a late lunch in our room and then headed out for the advertised happy hour at Sundowners.
Continue Reading »
Christian May 28th, 2008
The bus ride from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio was interesting. We had to get off at Puntaarenas and find the bus that went to Quepos. We thought it was going to be a little easier than it was. Our bus dropped us off at one point in town and the bus that left for Quepos was in another spot. It didn’t help that our driver gave us completly wrong directions to the bus. A nice shop owner pointed us in the right direction and a guy selling watches out of a suitcase let us know that we had to buy our tickets somewhere else before the bus came. It was a little tricky, but we figured it out. After another four hours on a bus we made it to Quepos, the gateway city to Manuel Antonio. Continue Reading »
Christian May 21st, 2008
We left Puerto Viejo to go to the town of La Fortuna. We cheated a bit and took a air conditioned tourist shuttle, but it was worth every penny. They stopped to go to the bathroom, buy lunch, and still made it there in a couple of hours less than what it would have taken on buses. The town has changed a lot since I was there. There are now paved roads, a Burger king, and a huge super market. You can tell that the town is soley based on tourism by the number of tour agencies. We checked into our hostel around lunchtime. We threw our stuff in our room, disregarding the plethora of ants crawling all over the bed and headed out to find some food. We ate at a local restaurant, which was good, and then we relaxed the rest of the day, taking advantage of the cable tv.
The next day we woke up early to go to the La Fortuna Waterfall. Continue Reading »
Christian May 16th, 2008
Puerto Viejo
Getting to Puerto Viejo Costa Rica from Bocas del Toro was different from we thought it was going to be. We left on the first ferry at 7 to Changuiola. Our boat driver was officially insane, speeding through the narrow passages. We managed to hit a few submerged logs and get tangled in some plants along the way. The only good part of it was that we made it to the dock in half the time it was supposed to take. After getting off the dock, which was clearly in the middle of nowhere with no bus connections, all of us we forced to jump on tourist van which was way overpriced. The van dropped us off at a bridge that was the border between the two countries. After getting our exit stamp at the Panama border, we had had to walk over a wooden bridge with gaps in the boards that showed the river below. It felt rickety and super sketchy. The worst was when a truck would come and you would have to jump to the side on this metal platform that was rusted with holes. Once over the bridge, we had to go to immigration and find our way to the next bus to Puerto Viejo, which ended up not being all that bad. We even met a former marine that was living in San Jose and told us that he has to carry his knife around with him for protection, as he whipped it out. Great Times. Continue Reading »
Christian May 16th, 2008
We arrived around 5:30am to the little town of Almirate after a 9 hour overnight bus ride from Panama City. It was pitch dark and we had no clue where to catch the ferry. Taxi’s were waiting for the tourists to take them to the docks, so 6 tourists and all their luggage where loaded into little pick-up trucks for the 5 minute journey to the ferry. Casey got to ride inside while I got to ride in the truck bed with the luggage and one other guy. We were dropped off and told the ferry wouldn’t actually be leaving till about 7am. Finally the owner arrived and started turning on lights and getting our names and money. He also brought with him to work 2 furry puppies that we played with while we waited. Eventually, we boarded the ferry and were on our way for the 25 minutes to Bocas Town. Continue Reading »
