Garden-Now-Zoo

Now we are counting in days. We are somehow at 10 when we started with more than 100. And despite the dwindling number we are simply going to bed early, sleeping in and reading most of the days. We did wander to a garden yesterday and found ourselves there for hours as it was actually a zoo. As you get to be face to face with the animals and pass them items off the ground the first few seconds of looking at each one I was filled with happiness. Seconds later though, the horror of there living conditions that make you able to get so close set in. And, it is scary. The cages were in general semi-dirty and 1/50th of the size they probably should be. And with the sheer quantity of animals from all over the world that this garden-now-zoo had I can't imagine they did a great job of keeping up with the needs. Anyways, once past the moral part I had a great time. There was a slew of toucans (who were just as colorful as the fruitloops toucan) who I successively passed leaves to, and I actually got bored before they did. A monkey also played a little game of tug-o-war with a stick and a giant tamir stuck his gnarly tongue through a fence for us. I stared at a towering emu inches from me and it bat its eyelashes endlessly. There was everything from raccoons to peacocks to a dozens of types of chickens and bunnies. The zoo also attracted some of the elderly white people from the area and one couple left us in disgust when they chuckled to us "we live here, we just don't speak spanish." Yikes.

Well, we have done the calculations and we are down from 15 weeks to 2. It is hard to be sad about coming home, seeing everyone and celebrating Christmas. Especially when we have been seeing Christmas decorations since when we arrived in September due to the lack of Thanksgiving and Halloween down here. Our style of living- roughly deciding on a place to go and going, unpacking, adventuring, meeting people, seeking out where the 5 cent cookies are, packing, and leaving people who we then sometimes will see later has been a lively twirl of time. Luckily we are just letting this go for a month and then it will all begin again in a similar manner in Southeast Asia, which makes coming home pretty easy in the end.

On another note... A few days ago we spent the day swinging through the jungle, thanks to Alan! It was a very professional canopy tour in which we had 4 guides for the two of us and one of them acted like the paparazzi the whole time which took the first 30 pictures to get used to.

By the start of the safety reassurance session and guidelines I had a smirk on my face and my eyes were about to roll. I was halted when I tried to put on the harness by myself. And with the instructions that were all about breaking, keeping perfect form, and no twirling because you might hit a tree I couldn´t help thinking ¨fuck this, I will spin if I want to!¨ ¨common do I really have to break?!¨ and ¨guys, guys, the biner in your safety demo is cross-loaded!¨ But, once on the canopy this was all clearly worth putting up with. Also, after we passed the only exit point at tree 6, twirling and last minute hazardous breaking began and never seemed to be a problem. Beyond this, I send you to the pictures that can show you much more than I can describe!

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The tarzan swing at the end

Giving Zoe a hug as she buzzed down the last cable

By request of our personal photographer...

More tarzan swing!

Cruising at 40 to 60 km over the jungle

Probably attempting and failing to grab a plant along the ride

Coming in for a landing

Hanging on the edge of a platform

Goodbye Country 4, Hello Country 5!

We had our last border crossing today into Panama. We strolled across a ghetto bridge with railroad tracks and many holes that would be easy to fall through letting you be swept away in the mucky river below. But, all was well.

The previous few days we have successfully been living off of couch surfing and squeeze beans. Couch surfing experience one was a lovely boy palace apartment. There was boy clutter all around, cereal for all meals (which we were welcome to!), and a tv set up with multiple unidentifiable video game attachments. By the end we demolished four boxes of cereal. The only bummer was that the dog decided to pee on my bag and our clutter on the floor right before we left.

Couch surfing time two was yet another success! We stayed in a nice simple house close to a fruit finca that Clay our host owned. Our second day there we got free roam on the farm and bagged up some Guanabana fruits in the top of a tree with a precarious wooden ladder. We also labored away at trying to bust open coconuts with a machete haphazardly. All fingers are in tack miraculously and in the end had some tasty coconut milk and meat too. The finca across the way which harvests cacao beans also provided endless entertainment. We purchased a kilo of raw beans for two dollars and spent one night roasting and peeling and the next smashing, grinding, cooking, concocting, and molding until we made enough chocolate to make us sick for the next few days or weeks.

The Beast

Last night as Santana played in the backround, we had and epic battle against a tarantula with a toilet cleaning brush. Our first attempt to kill the beastly tarantula with a shoe each was no luck and just sent the monster scurrying around the bathroom. But, with a toilet cleaning brush I managed to do some damage. With the first strike I took off half of it´s legs but the fiend still scampered to the other side of the room. Luckily with the next few hits and sqaushing sessions all the legs were removed and it was left wiggling but harmless and soon the fucker was dead!

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Outside our hotel in Orosi

The church in Orosi

Costa Rica!

After a twirl of time on the fairytale island of Ometempe (two twin volcanoes rising from Lake Nicaragua with jungle and plantain farms all around) we headed to the boarder to head into our 4th country, Costa Rica.

It is seemed very surreal to be at another border and a whole other new country. Costa Rica´s border though was free and a mere stroll down a dirt road with a short stop to flick open your passport. We soon encountered this would be the only free or cheap thing we would be finding in Costa Rica though. By the first town we were left mopey and reminiscent of beloved Nicaragua where a hotels were 3 dollars instead of 10 and meals could be found for 1 buck as opposed to 4 here. Also, Costa Rica´s 2,000 bill has an awesome hammerhead shark on it and I am always reluctant and sad to give it away. Despite the prices, we have devised a plan to get in and out of here without too much damage which is centralized around couch surfing, squeeze beans, bread, and bananas.

So far we have not managed to have any luck with the couch surfing but it is looking like the next 4 days and the rest of our time here we will. Our spirits were also boosted when we found a hotel for 6 dollars in Orosi, a little town we have come to adore. There are green hills and mountains surrounding the valley Orosi is in and it mists and is a tolerable temperature for once. There are also some enticing hot spring pools but when we showed up this morning for a dip there was a swarm of old people dominating the area which thoroughly deterred us.

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Syked on the Christmas tree outside our room! Our door also had a wreath on it the next morning!



Cows Cows Cows!
Volcan Conception behind a small cemetary
Sad state of affairs for the always pregnant girl dogs around here
A path that turned into a sweet little jungle tunnel
Maderas beach near San Juan. We tested out our luck with surfing here and managed to ride quite a few waves very unskillfully.

Poison in the Air

It is confirmed that not only is my risk of skin cancer going up (from the continual cycle of burning, blistering, and peeling) but also lung cancer from the lovely way trash is dealt with here.

From the back of a moving pick up my eyes were spasming by watching colorful trash pass in the distance. It seemed like the typical spread of litter but soon it turned into heaps and a then a monstrous land fill was revealed. It looked poorly kept up and to top it off there were small fires scattered in it burning it all away. When you could see the last of it a sign revealed that this plant that was spurting out cancer, was the municipal recycling center. Good one guys, recycling toxins into the air.

Preaching and Pills

Nicaraguan buses have provided a new fascination for us. With each bus ride you can more or less count on some preaching or an advertiser for sketchy unlabeled pills. Almost all seem harmless, but also useless. There are vitamins that make your shinny hair, anti diarrhea pills (which were described by using a chart of invertebrates) and beyond. One in ten times you will get someone that is selling toothbrushes and paste but the interest is those is always much lower despite it being the only sensible purchase. The preaching can be enthralling. They vary in quality but can be quite eloquent. They go downhill quickly though when the preacher starts shaking, and sweating with his eyes closed. Also, at the end of some you will get blessed individually.

After a few of these bus rides we made it to San Juan Del Sur which is definitively the hub of the gringo trail. Our hostel has one of the first security systems we have seen: you are tagged with a bracelet that is red with dog bones and cat paw prints which then allows you to walk past the security guard at night. It is pretty goofy, especially as the hostel is under construction making it easy to stroll in through the back half of the dismantled building.

We explored the beach today and were reminded of Seattle with all the tide pools and inlets. There are also towering cliffs on either end of the beach. One boasts a gigantic Jesus statue that we estimated is about 6 stories after comparing it with the 8 story hotel below it. We hunted for the colossal Jesus but were never successful.

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Our cute room which was adorned with peaches.
A Jesus float

A parade outside our window.

Halloween!
We were temporarily distressed on Halloween morning as we were candy and costumeless in a deserted fishing community (maybe 100 people and most families have 4-5 kids) on the pacific coast. We had quite a hunt for candy and in the end were able to scrounge up some hard candies, marshmallows, and cookies. In the midst of the hunt we encountered the horror of a large pig being hauled up to the top of a chicken bus. There was a mere twine rope around its neck that it dangled from as the bus attendant took his sweet time with the pig literally screaming. The pig problems continued as the ranch dog who faithfully escorted us was crazed about chasing pigs out of pens and around town. Once it was more or less dark we started our feasting and boogie boarded in the night waves until thunder and lightning signaled for us to get out.

Volcano Number 2:
We headed for the top of our second volcano behind our 16 year old guide and his machete for simultaneous trail work/trail creating. It was five hours of easy up but sweat still flowed from every pore. For a large part of the trail we found dumb struck cows in bushes who seemed to be playing hide and seek with their owner who trotted past us on his horse many times in attempt to round them up. There were also many encounters with mosquitoes and them trying to eat us alive. They especially liked Zoe´s forehead, so I was continually slapping her across the face. The top was, as we expected, magnificent. A perfect volcanic caldera with a perfect blue green lake nestled in it. The top was also a prime view point for much of Nicaragua, and parts of El Salvador, and Honduras. Back down was a few hour stroll, but I managed to stab myself in the heal on a thorn creating a gooey blood mix in my shoe.

Abominable Managua:
We headed to the much hated Managua with high hopes that were crushed within hours. We found ourselves instantly lost and consulted our map. This proved to be useless though as there are no street signs and no one knows street names, including the big ones (pretty typical of everywhere in central america). Still, we resisted the sketchy taxis and began walking. We walked a meager two blocks and then were rescued by a missionary couple. Usually we would be cracking jokes, but they were overly helpful and led us to the exact block were we had 3 hotels to choose from. We settled and then stepped out of our home for some lunch. Within 30 seconds we were approached, offered a taxi to ten mentioned places, then marijuana, and then coke. To avoid such confrontations we stayed cooped up in our room most of the night. We fled in the morning from the god awful capital and are now in Masaya which is quite pleasant and we are offered only tasty bread off the streets, no coke.

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Volcano Time!

Yesterday we successfully climbed Nicaragua´s highest volcano, San Cristobal and sweat a few pounds in the process! The first day we camped out on a coffee finca in proximity to the bottom of the volcano run by a friendly old man who does frequent measurements on the volcano. We used his fire for s´mores and pasta making as it started dumping on us about as soon as we arrived. He chatted with us all joking about how we have good small bodies for climbing the volcano and he continued pointing to his friend remarking how he would be praying to god the whole time. The rest of the night the rain failed to cease and there was booming lightning over head which even took down a substantial tree more or less next to us.

At 3:30 we rolled out and trekked through grass and these eerie trees coming up out of the start of the black sand. When it erupted in the past the trees died but were still left standing and with all the sulfur they are left preserved like drift wood. Soon all you could see was a mountain of black sand and rock covered by ominous clouds and it looked like we were walking up into hell. We continued though and climbed in the black sand which made it quite easy to start land slides for hours before reaching the summit. We were unfortunately covered in clouds at the top, so we missed out on most views. But, it did feel like you were on top of the world or dangling off an air plane as all the clouds whizzed by. Also, gusts of wind bring up a funny assortment of bugs which then become intoxicated from the sulfur and die leaving tons of exotic insects scattered everywhere. After a session of munching trail mix and examining the bugs we headed down which took a pathetically short amount of time in comparison to the climb up. With all the loose sand and rock we just ran straight down. At the bottom after the frolicking down we dumped out our shoes, lunched, and then headed for the bus.

On one of the chicken buses home it became packed and we had a few poor people around us who felt the need to cover their noses since we smelled so bad. But, we had just climbed the highest volcano so I had a hard time feeling guilty about the stench.There was also a man behind me who constantly sneezed and spit on me making the dirty factor even worse. Eventually back in Leon we took care of our hygiene problem and let ourselves get big ice creams for dessert as a prize of accomplishment.

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The creepy trees beginningAn upside down tree
View partway up
Summit!
The easy part- running on down

Fincas and Fabricas

All the factories I have made my way to in the US have consisted of ridiculously elaorate metal machines stuffed in a warehouse doing all the steps and creating more tedious steps to make the product. We headed to a nearby chocolate factory today and I was expecting to see something similar. I have seen many of the chocolate bars by this company in stores, therefore assuming it must be a real booming factory. Oh boy was I wrong. Upon arrival we rung a little gong to get let in and then were shown to the factory which is a castle. Stone walls, a little turret and so on. Not only does the production take place in a castle but much of the steps are done by hand. This includes crushing and crumbling the coco beans from their shells with a stone morter. The lady who works in the factory and guided us kept emphassizing that it was easy work and she could do 300 lbs in a day no sweat. I was not convinced though. We also made ourselves sick (in a goodish way) from exessive chocolate tasting and got to take home fudgy brownies.

Yesterday was the coffee platation, Selva Negra where most of the land is protected rainforest. It was a fantasy land, and our entrance fee let us wander to any part of the land we wished. We walked through many questionable foot paths leading us through coffee bushes, banana trees with full banana bundles, past cotteges with clothes drying on lines strung about, in a tomato patch, through flower gardens and to a lake full of geese. We also discovered a little farm with calves, horses, pigs, and piglets, which we could just walk straight up to. We ate our lunch under a small garden which had dangling flower pots everywhere and then headed back home.

Also, we have counted out the days and have decided that two days from now (the 24th) marks our half way point already!

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Our bathroom... Notice how the lack of a shower curtain creates a muddy pond on the floor
Chocolate tasting with great enjoyment
The chocolate factory castle!
A bundle of bananas
A foot path through the coffee and jungle plants
Piglets! These ones have brown eyes, but some of the big pigs had these magical bright blue eyes
Some banana tree flower coming out of the ground

Houses of people that work on the coffee plantation

Nicaragua

We got into Nicaragua a few days ago after spending a night in Tegucigalpa where for multiple hours in the evening it sounded like war outside. Luckily this was all coming from the chaos of the El Salvador vs Honduras soccer game being projected in many of the streets (although in the 60´s these two countries did more or less started a war over a soccer game). There were fireworks constantly going off resembling gunfire, police cars putting their sirens on for goals scored, and regular screams and yells. But, all was well. The city was calm once again in the morning and with chocolate milk and baleadas (tortillas with beans and cheese- Zoe´s favorite that we can´t find in Nica) we headed over the border.

We have spent the last few days hopping between cozy little mountain towns and have been blessed with semi-cool weather for a change. So far we have hit Somoto, Esteli and now Mataglapa. All of them are nestled in valleys and are surrounded by coffee fincas and modest houses and farms with animals roaming.

Somoto greeted us with their renowned rosquillas (cookieish biscuits) and our first taste of obnoxious Nicaraguan men. We escaped the men one day to the nearby canyon though, with a chatty and always smiling older man who was our guide. On our way down the the canyon we started a small collection of crystals and rocks torn up from a river bed. At the entrance of the canyon we hopped along river rocks until we had to swim and tow our stuff in a baby sized inflatable boat. The canyon walls were stunning as plants and vines dangled down everywhere. After gazing, splashing our way down, munching on lunch, and discovering a spider the size of my hand we headed home.

In Esteli we wandered to a waterfall with a women we met in our hotel and swam in the first water in all of central america that I might be able to call cold. While there we watched a few guys rappel down the fall and drop into the pool, which I was quite jealous off. On the way home we caught a pick up and a teenage girl chatted to us most of the way back which was a first.

Today was more or less our first day in Matagalpa. A striking thing hit us immediately yesterday though. We were walking into a park and we spotted a row of four waste bins painted four distinctly different colors provoking the thought ¨why have four separate cans and why different colors?¨ Turns out, they not only have garbage cans here, but they have compost and recycling too! I would go on to call this revolutionary for central america but the cans are not really used and the waste is clearly not sorted. This morning we got up and did some real exploring of the area with a self guided walk pamphlet. There were many directions that talked about fences and rock fields leaving us hoping that we would end up at home tonight, and we did. We walked through the surrounding hills passing many cows, chickens, and roosters. I made many attempts to make friends with them all, as Zoe could contest. We checked out a little pottery workshop in the hill and got some great views of Mataglapa. As for the next few days, we have plans to check out some coffee fincas and a chocolate factory.

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Final view of the hike over Matagalpa.
One out of a hundred chickens (a low estimate) along our hike.
Tomato plants growing in a boulder field along our hike by Matagalpa.
Our friend, the gigantic spider.
The opening of the canyon in Somoto.
The dive boat at the dock in Utila.
The coast of Livingston... The picture that killed my camera...it hit the sand after it rolled off a palm tree stump sadly :(


One of the seven pools with waterfalls connecting them.