WOOHOO!!! (Colombia)

FINALLY!!!!!  We have been in Cartagena now for over a week waiting for the car.  Highlights included, eating at the same cheap restaurants everyday, watching the entire first season of Newsroom, napping, reading books, Zumba in the Getsmani square, paying a cab to go to the closed shipment office on Saturday (when it was actually Sunday), walking around the mall for some great AC action, watching movies, getting a total of 5 new roommates, and calling the shipment office every 30 minutes along the way.
Today´s highlights include getting the news that we will be able to pick the car up this afternoon, buying car insurance, and GETTING THE CAR!!!!
Tonight, we will pack, and head out for a long long drive tomorrow morning to Medellin.

Waiting Around for the Car (Colombia)

Last night, we had a great feast with our friends and hungout for, possibly, the last night we would all be together.  Today, 3 of them left to go to Santa Marta.  Tomorrow, 2 more will leave, and lastly, we will leave, with a new member in the car, Evette.  We are all going to Santa Marta, but based on when the car will be released to us, we may miss some of them there.  So, it was great to hangout!
Today, we woke up and had breakfast.  Jared and I headed out to get some notaries for the car, and then went to the shipping company to turn in our papers.  We then came back to our area to attempt to buy car insurance, which ended up being a wild goose chase.  We did finally find a company that would provide the mandatory car insurance here, but they required a document from customs before we could proceed, so we were back at square one.
We headed back to the hostel, where I met up with some of the girls to go swimsuit shopping, as my bottoms were pretty much destroyed by the mud from yesterday, and another pair has become so loose, they almost fall off whenever I´m in the ocean.  Against my better judgement, I did end up buying 2 bottoms, BUT I don´t think 3 swimsuits are necessarily too many for the trip...and they are small.  After shopping, we split up, and I headed to the grocery store to buy something for dinner.  Ended up buying all the fixings for a yummy chicken, noodle, veggies stir-fry for a grand total of $11, which was split between 3 people!!
When I returned to the hostel, Jared was asleep, so I twiddled my thumbs for a while and hung out with some of our friends, until we finally voted to wake him up, and get dinner started.  The meal was yum, and a sweet release from all the fried dough we´ve been eating.  A popular street food dish here is an arepa, which is basically just fried dough with cheese, and maybe a bit of chicken if you´re lucky.  Heading to bed soon; hopefully, we can be a bit more productive with the car tomorrow.  Finger crossed.

Cartagena (Colombia)

The day we arrived in Cartagena was a bit of a blur.  We were all massively sleep deprived from the boat, and starving and dehydrated, as we had run out of water and food (did I mention this was the boat ride from Hell?).  After getting off the boat, we all cabbed from the port to the hostel area we had heard about to walk around and look for the best deal.  We found a great place called Hostel Marlin that has...wait for it...AIR CONDITIONING!!!! AND it was cheaper than the rest.  Shocking.
Basically our whole group from the boat stayed together, and we all settled in and showered for a much needed lunch.  We found a yummy place around the corner, and spent almost the entire lunch sharing our terror stories about the boat and having a good laugh and cheers over the whole debacle.
After lunch, Nicole and I headed out to catch a few sites in before she had to head to the airport.  We walked over to the Castillo de San Felipe, the largest fort the Spanish ever build!  It was pretty neat with an intricate tunnel system with an acoustic system that allowed the Spanish to hear the footsteps of approaching enemies from anywhere within the system!  Pretty neat.
                                            
After our quick tour, we headed back to grab a couple beers with our new boat friends before Nicole hopped into a cab to the airport after a tearful goodbye :(
I was insanely exhausted, and after setting up a rendezvous with everyone for dinner at 9 pm, went to bed for an epic nap that ended...at 5am.  Woops, missed dinner.  Turned out everyone else did too!
The next day in Cartagena, everyone was out and about doing touristy things.  Jared still wasn´t feeling very well, so we got a late start, but did end up being able to walk over to the old town, and walk all the way around the murallas (protective walls surrounding the city), and snap some photos.

                                                

 After a few hours of tourism, we headed back to the hostel for showers.  We got all dressed up for our new friend Alex´s birthday and walked much longer than expected to end up right back by our hostel for a delicious dinner in her honor.  We had all planned to go out crazy and dance the night away to salsa tunes (we are in Colombia), until to everyone´s elation, the birthday girl said she was too tired to go out anymore, a very much shared sentiment!!   We all headed back to the hostel exhausted and passed out straight away.
This morning, we woke up and grabbed a quick breakfast before our tour to Volcan Tutumo...potentially the weirdest tourist experience       we´ve had thus far!  What we had read about the "volcano", a complete misnomer, was that it actually spewed mud instead of lava, and the mud had very curative and rejuvinating qualities with 55 minerals.  When I spoke to the tour guide, she said we could get mud massages inside the crater, and it would be very relaxing!
What we got, resembled more of a pig sty, than a spa bath.  The "volcano" was an ant hill.  When we approached the top, well really the pictures are a better description, but what we saw was a hole maybe 10 feet deep jam packed with people crawling all over one another.

  It was more hysterical than anything else, and many people had a hard time keeping it together.  As we climbed down a ladder into the mud pit, a man grabs you from behind and forces your head pack into the mud: "relax relax! It´s ok! Relax!",  before sliding you off into the pit to be grabbed by a new man who tries to give you a full on rub down...aka massage...aka gross!  It´s literally just local guys who try to make a couple bucks by rubbing tourists legs and backs, no thank you!  After refusing several times, he basically tried to kick me out of the pit.  Movement was so weird, not sure if anyone has ever been stuck in mud, with a massive amount of people rubbing up against one another, without being able to touch the ground.  It is impossible to move!!  Luckily, our whole gang went, so we were able to pull one another through the throngs.  My mud experience ended when Jared jokingly dumped a load of mud over my head, which ended up in my eyes...with no way to wipe it off, because everything is mud!!!  But fear not, the experience doesn´t end there.  We hopped out of the mud pit and walked down to a lagoon, with possibly the warmest natural water I´ve ever felt, as women drag you in and force you to your knees so they can "help you wash"...aka molest you!  A woman started dumping water over my head, pulled up my entire bathing suit top and proceeded to help herself to my female mammary organs.  Then, just to make sure she hadn´t missed any spots, shoved her hands down my bottom to check for that last bit of mud.  The entire time dumping water over my head, so I couldn´t open my eyes.  Honestly, I was just laughing hysterically the entire time, there was really no other reaction I could think of at the time.  After that whole experience, we headed back into our bus to head to the beach for a bit of lunch and some fun in the sand before going back to the hostel.
When we got back, Jared and I had to snap back into travel mode and get some to-do´s done for the car.  We headed to the office of the shipment broker with our passports in hand to fill out some forms.  The car still hasn´t arrived yet, but tomorrow we have a load of papers to get notarized and insurance to buy, so we can head out as soon as the car is ready.
Tonight we are cooking dinner with our friends and having some beers, before probably calling it a night!

                                                   

Adventure Sailing!!!! Take 2 (Caribbean Sea)

Jared got a hold of my blog post, just as I walked away haha
ANYWAYYYY, he did feel terrible, but I did not poop on his chest.  I just let him sleep until the last minute.  Our shuttle came to the hostel to pick us up at 4:45am, and we attempted to pass out once on the road.  About 3 hours later, he dropped us off at some teenie port, where we were told by the indigenious people, the Kuna Yala, that we had to hop in a small boat to another island.  Keep in mind, we had no idea where we were going.  Our captain had messaged us saying we should take the shuttle to Porvenir, which we thought was on the mainland, to get picked up.  Needless to say, we we not sure we were making the right decision, but got on the small boat anyway.  After about 40 minutes, we hopped off on a small island, and after a bit of calling and searching, found our ship, Tres Amigos, right offshore.  The take-away message of this post is...DO NOT USE NIRVANA CHARTER FOR YOUR SAIL TRIP!!!
Basically, from the very start things were amiss, and only got worse.  Apparently, the boat he showed pictures of when selling the trip to us, was not in fact the boat we used.  When everyone else arrived the day before, Captain Brian Blaze, hadn´t seen his boat in a month, and made everyone wait while he and his crew cleaned out the mess.  We got very close to the ¨crew¨, a young couple from the US who had never spent a considerable amount of time on a boat, and were hired solely to cook, clean, and entertain the guests, as they hated the Captain as well; we learned from them, that as they were cleaning out the boat, they found old food with mold, and bugs everywhere, and that Captain Brian put actual Bleach in the water we were supposed to be drinking!

                                          

Anyway, the Captain was a A-hole.  The food, which he had promised would be ¨fresh fish we catch on the boat, lobster, ceviche, all super healthy¨, was instead canned tuna sandwiches at lunch and pasta with canned tomato sauce at night.  Gross.  We ran the motor night and day, instead of actually sailing, until...the engine broke!

  

 The entire time he was trying to fix it, he kept mumbling under his breath how much he hated this, and shouldn´t bring passengers on the boat etc.  He was terrible to the crew; verbally chastizing them for not knowing how to sail (they told him before they got on that they did not know how to sail, which he responded to telling them not to worry, as that was not in their job description) in front of all the passengers.  I almost had a panic attack the first night because I was stuffed into a TEENIE bed with no air circulation, sweating profusely.  No one slept.

There are 2 beds in there

 Almost everyone got sea sick.  Poor Jared was still sick the whole time.  The last night we were there, we literally almost died when the boat got ravaged by a swell that came out of nowhere!  The boat almost tipped, broke 2 safety straps, and ripped a huge hole in the sail.

 Thank god for the couple guys on the boat who tried to help, having no sailing experience, or we would have been in big trouble.  Oh, also, he had never told anyone where the life vests, flares or any safety equipment were; the crew didn´t even know!!!  Bad bad bad!!  Spread the word, Nirvana Charters are terrible!!!!!!  Lastly, he was a complete chauvinist, and continuously made derogatory comments about women and creepy sexual comments to the single girls, GROSS!

Ripped sail

                                              

Showering

One good thing came out of the whole experience, we got really close with the other passengers, and since arriving in Cartagena, Colombia have all been staying in the same hostel and hanging out together.  Everyone is very nice.

On a sad note, Nicole left us yesterday to go back to the US :(  wahhh.  It was amazing having her, and she will be missed massively.

Adventure Sailing!!!!!!!!! (Caribbean Sea)

Tuesday morning, I woke up at 3:40am to finalize packing to go on our sailboat to Cartagena, Colombia.  Jared was still feeling terrible, so i pooped on his chest, and he was like you are so disgusting.  but in my professional opinion as an amazing nurse back in new york, my perscreption of feces to make him feel better was the right call.

Car Shipping (Panama)

The Monday we were supposed to leave for the boat, Jared and I were planning on shipping the car and heading out to meet the boat.  The whole process ended up taking much longer than expected, and we had to postpone the boat one day, as Nicole had left with the majority of the passengers at 5:15am, and was already aboard.  Again, I cannot stress how much Jooliet Mancia helped us, but the entire endevour was pretty terrible.  As a side note, Jared was feeling incredibly bad with a splitting headache, muscle aching, and a fever since the night before, so he was out of commission, but did have to accompany us just in case anyone needed to witness him as the owner of the car.  This is a basic rundown of the day:
We met Jooliet at her office at 7am, where she finalized our lading document, which included all the items we were leaving in the car (against our better judgement and the recommendations of many people, but we couldn´t lug alot of the stuff onto the boat, so we were stuck) with estimated prices of each item.  Most of the items were the extra car parts we had either bought prior to leaving the US or aquired along the way.  That list took about an hour to complete, so right off the bat, we left later than expected.  We headed over to the police station with Jooliet, to get a stamp certifying that we could take the car out of the country.  When we arrived, we were told we had to wait at least an hour for the car to cool; so we twiddled our thumbs at the police station until about 10am.
When we were called to go to our car, Jooliet and I headed out to meet the officer, who ended up not even needing to inspect the engine (as he said being the entire reason we needed to let the car cool), and instead just wanted to match the VIN number of the car to the VIN that had been recorded by the immigration officer at the border when we entered.  HOLY GOD, you won´t believe it.  The effing VIN number had been written down incorrectly, and so the officer would not allow us to continue to the next step until we got it fixed.  Thankfully for Jooliet, she knew where the local customs office was, and drove with us to quickly see if we could get the numbers fixed.  After a quick stint at the customs office, we headed back to the police station, were the officer approved our documentation, and told us we had to just finish up by getting our final stamp...at 2pm across the street.  BAHH!!!  This was at about 11:30am (the time we had told the Captain of our boat we would be heading back to Panama City after FINISHING the car shipment process).  So Jared and I headed back to the hostel, to arrange for new transportation to the boat, and inform the Captain that we would not make it that day.  Poor Jared was totally out of commission, so he got a bit of rest and read, before I dragged him back out at noon to start the process at the police station again.
We went back to the shipment office to meet up with Jooliet, and headed to the station, arriving at about 1pm.  We waited for about 30 minutes, before we were seen, which was actually earlier than we had expected to be seen, so we were excited that something seemed to work out well.  After explaining why the owner of the car was not actually in the office with (el pobre esta tan enfermo, con gripe, durmiendo en el auto, terrible etc), I forged his signature and we headed back out for Colon, the port city from where the car was actually to be shipped.
The drive was easy, on a great road, and Jooliet actually gave us a toll card, so we didn´t have to pay anything along the drive (so nice).  This is where things start getting worse.  At first, we were excited, we arrived in great time, about 3pm, everything is open until 5pm, we should be great...not so.  First, we went to Jooliet´s office there to make a bunch of copies of the NEW customs form with the correct VIN number.  Then, we proceeded to the office of the actual ship we would be using to RORO the car onto (SC Line, I believe).  They stamped our paperwork quickly and we processed on.  Next we went to (what we thought was) the customs office.  They informed us that we actually had to drive the car out and around to get in inspected.  So, back to the car we walked and drove to the inspection area, where one unhappy inspector started yelling at us, "absolutely not. You cannot pick up a car now; it is much too late; we will not accept you etc".  One nicer guy listened when we explained we were not picking up a car, but dropping off.  He informed us that we had to go to the customs office for more stamps, to which we told him we had just done that, and they sent us to him.  "No no, that was not the correct window.  You have to go back. Oh, and it´s 3:30pm now, there is no way you will make it.  The port closes at 4pm."  Like hell we won´t!  We ran back to the car, and booked it back to the same area, different window, where we were told, "oh not THIS customs office, the OTHER customs office...5 minutes driving."  BAH!!!
As of this point, I had basically let Jared sleep most of the day, but now we needed all hands on deck.  He took the wheel and shuttled Jooliet and I around as we practically jump in and out of the car while it was still moving.  We headed down to the other customs office, and arrive at 4:02pm, 2 minutes after closing.  We were told, no one could help us, they were very sorry, we would have to come back.  At this point, I realized, if we did not ship the car that day, we would completely miss the boat.  I almost started bawling right there in the customs office, while Jooliet explain that "la joven" (milking it well) had to catch a flight, she couldn´t stay another day, so expensive to pay to change a ticket etc, and the woman amazingly sat back down and processed our paperwork.  Warning us that, we still had several steps to complete, and all the offices closed at 4pm.  But we were still determined, and we continued on.
We headed back to the same window we had come from before, were we were again told, no one could help as the office was closed (4:23pm at this point).  Again, I explained the situation, almost breaking into tears (again), until two nie young girls took pity and said they would process our paperwork, but we would have to pay for an hour of extra service, $135, ugggg, FINE!!!!  I should mention now, that during alot of the Jooliet was on her phone calling around to see if she knew people in the customs office or inspection office that could throw us a bone.  Apparently, she lucked out, because the head of the shipping...yard, I guess...called down and said they were a girl who needed a bit of extra time and should NOT be charged extra.  GO JOOLIETTTT!!!!!  So they ended up waiving the extra fee, and finishing our paperwork AND calling over to the inspection office to have the inspector wait a bit longer for us.  GO JOOLIETTTTTT!!!!!  We finally went back to the inspection area, where again that mean guy started yelling at us, before someone told him, we had been approved to go late :p (that´s me sticking my tongue out at him).  They inspected the car, a drug dog came and sniffed around before we handed over the keys and HALLELUJAH we were DONE!!!!!!!!!!  Exhausted, hungry, and dehydrated, we got into Jooliet´s car and went back to Panama City.
I can´t even remember what we did, the rest of the day was a blur.  Poor Jared was feeling terrible.  We grabbed a bite to eat and went to bed, I have no idea what time.

Shipping the Car from Panama to Colombia...the Dreaded Nightmare...and Beyond (Panama)

Yesterday we were busy little bees. I had called the company we are using to ship the car to Colombia and found out a few tid-bits of information that would make getting on a boat at 5am on Monday a bit challenging. We had planned on spending Saturday touring the city, and then all day Sunday prepping for the car shipment. Apparently, and I'm not sure why we hadn't thought of this, the company was closed Sunday, but open for a few hours on Saturday, so that morning, Jared and I grabbed a cab and headed over to the shipping company. Due to terrible street signs, or lack of a street name entirely, the address, (which was literally: this large neighborhood, after this super large street, across from the building under construction) was unfamiliar to the cab driver, and after an hour of searching all over, we finally pulled into a hotel, so I could call.   After getting exact directions, we found the place easily.
A quick side note, if anyone has ever attempted to look into car shipment from Panama to Colombia, you find that information is incredibly elusive. When I typed any version of "ship a car from Panama to Colombia", the most common sites to come up were other travel blogs. I contacted probably 50 different shipping companies, from home movers to oil tankers, before I found our company, The Rozo Group. They were one of the only companies who offer "roll-on, roll-off", instead of the standard container shipment. I actually hadn't found any other blog who had used them before, and all of the stories I had read about the entire process were completely nightmarish, including having to go back to the border, because documents were signed incorrectly, having to wait up to 8 hours for simple paperwork to be processed etc. Needless to say, I was dreading the process, and was afraid it would take much longer than the 4 hours that the Rozo company was open on a Saturday morning. The paperwork processing at the Rozo group was only 50% of what needs to be done (we have to go to the Police Station to have them sign off on us shipping the car out [but they were not open at all on the weekends, and we have to wait until Monday to complete that step]) BUT, I was blown away by the experience. When we came in, a woman gave us a paper to fill out, and we were prepared with all of our copies, completely due to the fact that we had emailed back and forth and were well informed by the company. FYI, you must bring 3 copies of each: Passport photo, License, Title, and Insurance, including the originals. We waited maybe 10-20 minutes before the woman we had been emailing, Jooliet Mancia, came in and explained the next step of the process, i.e. the police station and actual transport of the vehicle to the port. Probably the most shocking part of the whole process was when she mentioned that she would travel with us Monday morning to the shipping dock, about an 1+ hour away. When I inquired why she had to come with us, she said because it wasn't a great area, and she didn't want us to get stuck out there, so she would follow us in her car, and drive us back....!!!! What!?!? That type of generosity, literally, never happens. Anyway, obviously, we were blown away, and out of the office about an hour after we walked in. Again, thus far we are only 50% of the way through the process, but as of now, I cannot recommend this company enough. They were also about $700 less than container shipment. TELL EVERYONE!!!
When we came back to the hostel, the water wasn't working, so we headed out to rent some bicycles along the Amador Causeway for some nice views of the city. We hadn't done anything like that before, usually because it's pretty cheezy, and we don't like spending our money on those types of things, but we all had a really great time, and surprised ourselves with the experience.

We had perfectly planned out timing, so we could return to the hostel at about 4 o'clock, shower, beautify, and head out the dinner with friends of mine from Uruaguay, the US Ambassador and Mrs. Farrar. Did I mention earlier that the water went out?? BOY was that the wrong day to have shower issues!! The hostel was steaming hot, and there were no showers, toilets, or drinking water.  I went outside when it started to rain just to cool off...which also ended up making the massive amount of sunblock I had slathered on earlier turn into super slime. At 5:30pm, the water still hadn't turned on, so we used the half bottle of water that I had saved in case this happened, and used that to literally rub soap on our bodies and rinse off at the sinks. We put a pretty hefty dose of doedorant on, tried as best as possible to look "shiny", not "sweaty", put on our Sunday best, and hopped in the car...late, for the Farrars house. Luckily, Ambassador and Mrs. Farrar were completely understanding, and it ended up being a kind of funny situation.

Dinner was fabulous, and we had veggies, which we hadn't had in a while! Their home is amazing, and we spent most of the night chatting about our families and our trip. I think some of our stories horrified Mrs. Farrar (the brakes, headlights, hygenic situation etc), but she I think she loved hearing them all the same. They seem to really enjoy Panama, as have we. When we returned to the hostel, we were pooped! So, we headed to bed early, well around 11:30pm.
Our hostel is really nice, and very big, but we are in a pretty up-and-coming location for bars it seems, and our large open windows face onto the street...where cabs drop off and pick up their drunken fares. Every night has been a bit of a challenging sleep situation, BUT I was reminded of the glorious wonders of the earplug, and had the first good sleep since we got here. Earplugs...another must for a trip like this.
Today, Nicole and I went out on a jog and a bit of a workout, but I was overwhelmed by the heat, and had to cut out early.  Jared had been feeling pretty crummy since the night before, and waking up in the morning, he was no better: a massive headache and aching muscles, no bueno. He took a not-entirely-doctor's-recommended-but-completely-Kathleen-recommended dose of Ibuprofen, hyperhydrated, and rested a bit. We had planned to have lunch with his aunt, whom he discovered was visiting Panama City just the day before.   After a few hours of TLC, Jared was feeling good enough for lunch, so the three of us headed out to the Mall to meet his aunt, her sister, and her nephew and niece. All of them were incredibly warm, and generous, and intrigued by our trip. Jared and his family have a great bond. We had very yummy Mediterranean food, and said our goodbyes, before doing a bit of shopping for essentials that had run out or been lost (me again). Back at the hostel now, Jared and I did laundry in the sinks. We need to prep the car for shipping tomorrow, and pack our bags to maximum capacity so as not to leave anything in the car. Tomorrow will be a long, possibly infuriating day, so I don't imagine we will not be doing anything super exciting tonight.

The Last Leg of Central America (Panama)

Holy moly, 8 countries in 2 months. We have been a backpacking machine! As we crossed into the Panamanian border, which is pretty unorganized, and probably screwed us over, claiming that the car insurance we had bought (which states that Panama is included) was not accepted here, Jared reminded us all of the fact that we have done alot of driving and beaching and hiking and everything else we could imagine. It was a nice nostalgic moment for us.
Our first stop in Panama was David, a small town close to the border, where we could refuel and rest after a very long day of driving. The only notable part was the super yummy fish dinner for $3, oh and the increasing annoying guy who kept trying to hitch himself and his friend onto our journey.
The next morning, we headed to Santa Catalina, another surf spot for Jared. Unfortunately for us, the weather was pretty crummy, and one of the resident hostelers and surfers informed us that Jared would not be able to surf that evening, but to fear not, the weather should be good the next morning. After we all napped, we headed out to grab pizza with some of the other surfers and some drinks before calling it a night. In the morning, Jared woke up and headed to the SUPER rocky beach with the other surfers, as the only long boarder. After about an hour, he came back in, getting his fill of a great wave (I´ve learned surfers talk about ¨waves¨in the singular form), and all the rocks...and cuts and scrapes that come with them.
 We had initially planned on headed to a small set of islands on the far side of Panama called San Blas, but after someone told us (incorrectly) that the drive took about 8-10 hours, and we weren´t even ready to go until after 11 am, we decided we would hold off on what would inevitably be a terribly long day of driving, ending with us trying to find out way...to an island...in the dark, oh and the road map showed that there was, in fact, no roads to the island...which there ARE, we just couldn´t find them. ANYWAY, point is, we decided not to go to San Blas, but instead to Panama City for the night, and wake up early to finish the last leg to San Blas. Low-and-behold, the trip to Panama City took about 3 hours (not the 7 we had been told), and we were able to find our hostel in Casco Viejo easily.
 We had been told that Panama City was ¨like every other Latin American city¨. False.

 The downtown metropolitan part of Panama City is more picturesque and larger that most US cities. We are staying in the old part of town, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The interesting thing about Panama City, is that its architecture really is stunning, but some grandiose buildings have been left in a state of such disarray; it´s easy to see, though, the efforts the city is making to restoring these facades. After checking in with some family friends here about getting together for dinner at some point, we headed out for own dinner at Restaurant Coca-Cola, the oldest restaurant in the neighborhood. After, we went to a neat microbrewery, called La Rana Dorada, for the most expensive beers we´ve had since we left the US, but they were yummy! We all returned to the hostel for a quick hangout, and bed.
 This morning (Friday), we woke up...or should I say, we were woken up at 5:20 in the morning when the lights came on and a German couple started yelling at one another...did I mention it was 5:20 am. Ohhh, the life of living in hostels. Anyway, Jared and Nicole weren´t able to fall back asleep, so the two of them woke up for a bit of exercise. When they came back, we packed up my small backpack (ohh, which I have not metioned has been my FAVORITE item on the trip, if you ever do something like this, get a small backpack that can fold into itself, LOVE IT!! I digress...) and grabbed the ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT pancake and banana breakfast at our hostel, Luna´s Castle Hostel. During out meal, we met a nice man, Brian, who was the captain of an adventure sailboat, that took travelers from Panama City to...wouldn´t you know it...Cartagena, Colombia, our first stop in Colombia. Sooo, last minute we changed our plans from hanging out in Panama and flying to Colombia on Tuesday, to hanging out on a sailboat from Monday to Friday and landing in Colombia!! Pretty cool. So our day opened up (oh, the sailboat crossed the Panama Canal and goes to the San Blas islands), so we got to look forward to touring around Panama City a bit!

 We unpacked, and set out to walk Casco Viejo and check out some of the sites. Then Nicole and I headed to the Panama Canal (Jared had been years ago with the military and opted out), which was super interesting! When we returned, we were hungry, so we walked over to the fish market and split a whole fish, with tostones, and a large cup of mixed ceviche, yum!

We came back to the hostel a bit ago, due to the heat and amount of time we had been in the sun. Not sure what the plan is now, but as usual...I´ll keep this informed!

Costa Rica (Costa Rica)

Sunday morning, Jared, Nicole and I woke up at about 5:30 am to pack and head out of Leon. We said our goodbyes to a pretty hungover, potentially still drunk, but always fabulous Eliza, and headed back to Managua. We had left our bags at Eliza's, so, once back in Managua, we showered, packed and headed out for Costa Rica. The drive was easy, good roads in Nicaragua, and the border was fast. Costa Rica has a pretty big tourism industry, so they have efficient border procedures.

Once in Costa Rica, the drive to Tamarindo was just a couple hours.  I had been to Tamarindo years ago with Eliza´s family, but it had definitely become more developed over the years. Gringos and surfers everywhere, and almost all the signs in English. We found our hostel easily, and settled down. Initially, we were planning on staying several days, because Jared wanted to surf alot, but after he found out the $95 pricetag attached to a boat trip to his prized surf locations, he decided to stay one day only. We had to ask about 4 different hostels if they were taking people out the next day, and none would, as they did not have enough people to justify a day long excursion. Finally, we found Witch´s Rock Surf Camp, which would be able to take Jared and a few other people out the next morning. Once his surf plans were set, we excitedly walked down to the beach just in time for what Jared said was his favorite sunset so far. On the way back to the hostel, we picked up dinner from a woman cooking kebobs in a parking lot, and some rum and juice for Nicole and me (we weren´t surfing the next day and there is really nothing touristy to do there). Back at the hostel, we hung out with some of the other hostelers, until Jared went to bed, and Nicole and I went out with some people for a night of dancing!! The next morning, Jared woke up at 4:45 am to catch a bus and boat to Witch´s Rock and Ollie´s Point for a full day of surfing.

 Nicole and I had a bit of a rough start due to our pretty significant hangovers; the ungodly hot weather did not help that. Later in the afternoon, we finally rallied and headed to the beach, for a nice walk and another stunning sunset. On our way to find dinner, we ran into an elated Jared, who had just come back from surfing and proclaimed that day to be his favorite of the trip!! We were so happy for him; he said surfing there was a dream come true for him. We had a seafood dinner, and all heading to bed pretty early as we had a long day of driving into Panama the next day.

Too busy to write (Nicaragua)

Sorry we haven't posted in a bit.  We have been busy bees.  Corn islands was amazing.  Super fun at night, great meals, and gorgeous beaches.  Tough life.  We came home on Sunday, spent one night relaxing, unpacking, and doing laundry, to wake up early the next day, finish everyone's schooling and head to...THE BEACH!  Eliza, Jared, Nicole, and I went to Gigante, a great surf spot on the pacific coast, and Eliza's favorite place in the world.

We arrived just in time for sunset, met some gringo locals, had a yummy dinner and hung out at the hostel bar for a few hours.  The next day, slightly hungover, we headed to the beach.  I finally bit the bullet and got surf lessons, which were much-needed.  The surf was great; I caught the white wash and farther out Jared was able to catch the big waves.   After, we grabbed a couple beers eight the surf instructor and went back to the hostel for naps, lunch and playing in the water.  As the sun started approaching the horizon, we again grabbed some
beers (there is a theme in Nicaragua that we did not have in other places), threw them into my backpack, and had a pretty vigorous hike up Pie de Gigante for, debatably (between Jared and us girls), the best sunset we've seen this entire trip.  It was pretty stunning and the cliff drop and water below we're stunning.  We spent about 1 minute soaking in the colors after the sun dropped below the horizon, before booking it back down as we would run out of light and have to navigate through the woods, and poorly marked paths in the dark.

When we got back, we washed up and had dinner.  Jared went to bed early and us girls planned on a nice glass of wine and steppe until...the owner showed up (a friend of Eliza's) and the night ended up extending slightly longer than expected.  The next morning, we closed out a pretty complicated bill, and headed back to Managua for afternoon classes.
That was Wednesday, the next Thursday, and the 4th of  July.  Everybody had a half day of class, and we spent the day prepping for a party at Eliza's house.  We had pool time and games, sausages, hamburgers, and shrimp tacos, and met all of Eliza's friends, and shared some good drinks and laughs.  Big moment of the night came when Nicole won the water balloon toss, later followed by some fireworks.  The whole night was lots of fun and Americano festive.

Friday was the last day of class for Jared and Nicole.  I sent the car to the mechanic shop the day before so they cabbed it there and walked back.  Then, you'll never guess, we packed up again to head to Leon.  We arrived last night and unpacked, before heading to a super yummy Cuban dinner.  After dinner, Nicole, Jared and I were officially pooped, almost falling asleep at dinner.  We headed back to our hostel and passed out nicely.

Today, we woke up, grabbed a quick breakfast, and Jared, Eliza, Nicole, and I went to Volcan Cerro Negro for volcano boarding.  Our guide was super nice, and brought his kick-butt 4 year old, who apparently can hike every volcano around.  We hiked up the side of the volcano, which was pretty tough as the rocks are not stable at all, and our boards we strapped to our backs, so the heavy wind caused us to nearly fall off the narrow path at the top a couple times.  When we got to the top, we saw the crater and the sulfur rising from the very active volcano mouth. Apparently, the volcano averages an eruption every 15 years, and is due to erupt again...right about now.  Once we got to the top, we got our knee and elbow pads on, gloves, goggles, and jumpsuits.  The way down was pretty steep, but very cool to slide down on our sleds.  We actually caught a collision on our camera as we were taking pictures at the bottom, and our guide told us, pretty serious injuries (including a girl whose face had basically been shaved off by the volcano rocks) are somewhat common.

Tonight, Eliza and Bryan have gone to a wedding.  Jared is hanging out at the hostel, and Nicole and I are currently giving ourselves an avocado hair mask.  Dinner and bed in the next couple hours.  Tomorrow, we are heading out to Costa Rica after running back to Managua to pack up the car.


Nicaragua has been amazing.  It has been a dream to see my best friend for so long.  As you can see though, there hasn't been much downtime for blogging, but our time has been great fun!

Back to the Beach! (Nicaragua)

Thursday morning, we woke up super early to catch our 6am flight. We were packed up and ready to go...about 30 minutes after we were supposed to leave. Thankfully, the Nicaraguan domestic airline, La Costeña, is pretty relaxed, and the last of us was able to check in about 30 minutes before take-off. The flight was easy, a touch over an hour, and stopped on the Atlantic coast in Bluefields, before soaring over the ocean to Big Corn Island. We grabbed lunch at the port there, and jumped into a small, overly-crowded boat bound for Little Corn Island. Once we arrived, there were actually two people waiting for us to take us to our hostel.

We walked across the island, to our hostel, Grace's, and settles in for some beach time. The hostel was nice, right on the beach, but from the minute we sat down, locals started coming up trying to sign us up for snorkeling and diving and parties etc. We kept trying to politely tell them we were pooped from waking up early, but they kept coming, which was a bit annoying, along with the drums people kept playing at the bar. After a couple hours, we headed over to meet Jay who was staying at a hostel down the beach a bit. His place was great; much more secluded and a huge room with lots of space and futons.

We had a couple drinks in the room, and made the decision to switch hostels and all pack into the room at the other hostel, La Iguana, before heading out to dinner for yummy seafood. While at dinner, one of the locals that was hanging around at our hostel with a bottle of tequila since 10am, stormed the restaurant trying to fight some other local, effectively solidifying our decision to change hostels.

 On our way home, Nicole was pooped from a food coma, so she went straight back to the hostel, while the rest of us went back to Jay's room at La Iguana, to play Cards Against Humanity, which we had become obsessed with from 2 nights before. Jared went home before the rest of us, and Eliza and I went to sleep on the futon, while Bryan and Jay hung out. We finally all headed home pretty late and slept pretty well.
 The next morning, we woke up when the electricity went off at about 7 am, cutting off our fan, and turning our rooms into sweatboxes. Also, the walls were paper thin, so we could literally hear every conversation going on at that hour, making sleep impossible. No worries, we packed up our stuff, checked out of Grace's, and moved into La Iguana. Jay was still sort of sleeping sleeping, so we left our bags on the porch, overlooking the ocean, and went to grab some yummy breakfast. Some of us got eggs and gallo pinto, while Jared discovered potentially the world's best french toast with roasted coconut shavings. They knocked everybody's socks off!

 Afterward, we walked down to the beach, and lounged around soaking up the sun and playing in the water. Unlike the last hostel, no one was around and we really got to enjoy our secluded beach time. The food on the island was phenomenal, so we were very strict about eating three meals a day, no matter how full you still were from your last delicious meal. We grabbed a yummy lunch of ceviche and fish at the hostel before heading back out to the beach. Later, we showered up and headed to dinner, still stuffed from lunch, to have the local dish, called rondon, a stew of seafood and veggies in a coconut broth. After dinner, we were completely stuffed, but siked to play more Cards Against Humanity, with a pictionary twist. Lots of rum and fake tattoos later, we headed to bed.