JeffandErin

Hong Kong & Vietnam- Erin Our journey to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon,) Vietnam started with a series of long and taxing flights. After a smooth departure from Lima, Peru our first stop was back in the good ol’ US of A, for a 4 hour layover in San Francisco. We used that time to find the best burger “joint” in the international terminal, enjoy a typical American lunch, and watch some of the Olympics. It was sure nice to be back on our home soil for even such a short amount of time!! We then boarded our hefty jet (the largest airplane I have ever been on) and we were on our way to Asia. After forcing ourselves to sleep for a while, indulging in every (very tasty) inflight meal, and watching many episodes of ... read more

Peru – Jeff Twenty eight hours on a bus is enough to drive anyone crazy. Needless to say, our arrival in Lima from Guayaquil, Ecuador was welcomed with open arms. After checking into our quaint hotel in the Central Lima district, we decided to grab a meal to tie us over for the evening. We chose a restaurant suggested by our guide book that was only a few blocks away called La Choza Nautica. The food was immaculate! Prepared and served with incredible attention to detail. We had heard the Peruvian food scene was excellent and the rumor was proven true on night one. On day two, we toured Lima with no real highlights to mention. Lima had some interesting architecture and historic buildings but it seemed to fall in to the standard South American capital ... read more

Colombia – Jeff Arrivng in Colombia obviously comes with some reservations based on what has been reported in the media about the country for the past fifteen years. Drug cartels, guerilla soldiers (The FARC), kidnappings, etc. As we traveled, it was also a place that topped most South America travelers’ list as a favorite country in the continent. Erin and I were both nervous and excited to experience Colombia with all of the conflicting information. Our arrival city, Cartagena, is a large city full of Spanish colonial history and arguably the principal location for Colombian tourism. As our boat pulled in we passed by the old castle like fortresses that guarded the city hundreds of years ago. It did not take long for us to realize how hot Cartagena was after we had docked the boat. ... read more

Panama City/Sailing – Jeff We packed up our stuff in Boquete and headed to Panama City. Unfortunately, our 10:00 bus from David to Panama City left twenty minutes early. Never in my life would I imagine something in Latin America leaving on time, let alone 20 minutes early. We were, in fact, on time but missed the bus thanks to some misdirection from one of the bus operators. We had our tickets changed free of charge and hopped aboard the double decker bus for the ensuing eight hour bus trip. We arrived at the massive bus terminal in Panama City and immediately felt the fast paced, commercialized vibe of the big city. We checked into a small hostel in Casco Viejo, the “old town” of Panama City - which is currently in the midst of a ... read more

Mom and Dad Kemmerer Visit & Boquete – Erin After an overnight stay in Panama City, my parents finally arrived to Bocas landing strip via Air Panama! We were so excited to see them, and also very excited to get checked in to the house they rented for ten days Old Bank on Isla Bastimentos. We were not disappointed with my mom’s choice of Casa Roca! The property was a 5 minute walk along the ocean’s edge outside of Old Bank, and overlooked the water, private beach area, and rock jetty. The best part of the house was that the large doors lining the kitchen and living room area opened up to the big deck equipped with a hammock and comfy sitting chairs. We all immediately felt very at home J Our first priority was to ... read more

Bocas Del Toro, Panama –Erin After a wonderful visit from Mom and Dad Deren, Jeff and I were on our way to Bocas Del Toro, Panama for a couple weeks until Mom and Dad Kemmerer arrive. As always, the goodbyes in Costa Rica were accompanied by tears. It is always so hard to leave Jeff’s Costa Rican family, and then Pat and Linda returning home was a double doozy for us. It was just such a special time for all! Jeff and I caught the 6 a.m. bus out of San Jose, Costa Rica hoping to arrive in Bocas early that same afternoon. It was an uneventful bus ride to the border minus the steady rain, which made crossing the bridge into Panama rather daunting. The bridge itself was the scariest I have ever had to ... read more

Costa Rica – Jeff After a very comfortable (in comparison to the chicken buses in Nicaragua) eight hour bus ride from Rivas, Nicaragua to San Jose, Costa Rica we had crossed our first border. We immediately went to a familiar hostel in Heredia and reserved a room and headed to Barva to see my host family. We surprised my host parents as they were expecting us the following week-but the welcome the family offered made us feel like we were home. The weekend was full of family birthday parties. My host brother’s wife had a small get together at a local bar with some local live music. The rest of the Tico siblings joined in on the festivities that night as well as some aunts and uncles. Inevitability, Erin and I were asked to dance several ... read more

Ometepe/San Juan del Sur– Jeff Well we managed to get out of the Granada area. While we had a wonderful time, we were definitely ready for some new scenery. After visiting a rainforest treehouse hostel, we headed back into Granada to catch the four hour ferry to Isla Ometepe. The bus back into the city was, as always, completely jammed full of people. Erin and I stood at the very back as they continued to add more and more people to the bus (which always seems impossible, but somehow always successful). The back was a nice change as normally I give Erin the window seat and sacrifice my aisle-side shoulder to be victim of perpetual teabagging as they cramming gets more intense. The “hype man” for the bus (every mode of public transit has one – ... read more

Our last two weeks have been quite different than our time spent at Surfing Turtle. We left there with great memories, suntans, lots of bug bites, and advertising flyers in hand, to distribute for the owner as we continue south back to Leon, and then to Granada. We have definitely had a lot more activity traveling on our own! After making it back to our same Hostel we stayed at the week before in Leon, we decided to partake in one of the more popular “tours” the next day...volcano boarding! Our tour guide picked us up promptly at 8 a.m. in an old white jeep, and we set off to attack the Cerro Negro Volcano. The other couple in the Jeep also happened to be American from Tampa, FL, and they were excited to exchange travel ... read more