Colombia! Last year when a group of travelers I met told me I had to go to Colombia I let out a small laugh and said something like, "What for? To sample the coffee and get kidnapped"? "No", they said, "You really need to go to Colombia". "All right, whatever" I said, "Next year I'll go to Colombia". And boy am I glad I came, after being here for nearly four weeks I'm not to sure where to start; how about with one of the most beautiful national parks I have been to. Parque Nacional Tayrona The Caribbean coast of Colombia [View Full Entry]

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On monday the 16th of June we met the people we would share the boat with; 2 English, 2 Germans, 2 Australians, 2 Americans, us, and a French girl. Quite a mix, all with the same goal of getting down to Colombia and mostly sailing for the same reason, that being theres no road and its funner than flying and not that much more expensive. Some are backpacking like us, some are heading there to fly back home, 2 are on their way to visit a friends grave in Venezuela, and all of us are eager to set sail. Preparations take [View Full Entry]

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We're definitely off the beaten track in panama now, a few hours out of the big city, on the carribean coast. It took a few days to sort things out, and tomorrow we set sail for Columbia aboard the 50 foot ketch Seeadler, captained by a guy named Guido. With the wind at our backs and a bit of luck we'll land in Cartagena after 5 days, probably red skinned and crusted in salt. It's been a while getting here, we stopped in a small mountain town on the way, that had some waterfalls and hot springs. Then we were in [View Full Entry]

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Well the last two weeks have passed quickly as we make our way further and further south. Before dropping Tiff off at the airport we spent some time on the pacific side of Costa Rica where we experienced a big tropical storm. We were confined to our beach cabana for most of three nights and two days as driving rains and hurricane force winds battered the coast. We passed the time by playing cards and reading, until the power went out at least then it was realy dark. We emerged unscathed but the community centre down the road did'nt do as [View Full Entry]

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Nicaragua was the country I looked forward to visiting the most while planning this trip, and a few hassles aside it was a realy great place. We probably could have given it some more time, but with only five days left to be back in Costa Rica we decided to hit the beach there for a bit. After writing the last entry we decided to tour around the city of Granada for a bit while the sun was lowering in the sky. Across from the central park there was a tractor pulling a series of trolley carts and for 35 cents [View Full Entry]

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So I met up with my brother and sister last tuesday in Liberia, I ended up getting in about 45 mins after them because I missed the early bus out of Managua, oops. Rather than double back across the border we spent a day in Costa Rica at Rincon de la Vieja park. Tiff and Dane were getting used to the hot and humid climate while I was enjoying the cool, dry weather. It's definetely not 'honduras hot' here. The park we went to was something different, there were cracks in the ground puking out boiling mud and geysers spewing out [View Full Entry]

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I've heard for a long time that Honduras is the cheapest place to dive in the world, and from what I've seen it definetely lives up to that reputation. The island of Utila has a dozen or so diveshops all competing for your business; keeping prices down and promising all sorts of extras. Rather than sign up to dive the first day, Mike and Daryl checked out every shop and grilled them with questions and had them each put an offer on the table for us. We settled on a reputable dive company with good equipment, a decent price, and the [View Full Entry]

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I crossed the border into Guatemala late last week after less than a week in Mexico. The crossing was an interesting one: a shuttle took us an hour south where we had our passports stamped by Mexican officials who tried to charge 100 pesos after a small misunderstanding. Then we boarded a longtail boat and traveled an hour upriver past a few small settlements and a decent sized crocodile. Once in Guatemala we stopped at the immigration office complete with cattle and chickens grazing in the front yard. From here it was a dusty three hour bus ride to the town [View Full Entry]

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Palenque is a small town in the Southern Mexican state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. It´s more Central American than Mexican as its surrounded by thick green jungle and humidity you almost have to swim through. The main draw here is a set of ruins built by the Mayans that have been absorbed into the jungle and untouched for a very long time. They were good to wander around for a few hours in the morning when the sun wasn't fully overhead. I caught the nightbus out of Mexico city in order to save a bit of time and [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Mexico late Sunday night, flying over the city was like nothing I had seen before! Lights emmited an orange color as far as the eye could see. After a taxi to a downtown hostel I booked a tour to the pyramids north of town to keep me busy the next day. The hostel has a great central location close to many of the main sights and is not a bad deal at 10 bucks a night. The pyramids at Teotihuacan were very interesting, built by the Mayans many centuries ago this place flourished for hundreds of years [View Full Entry]

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