Hola Chicos! Well downwards we go! Mountains, mountains and more mountains. One thing not to understate is the windiness of all of Colombia´s major highways. No bus trip is complete without a switchbacking climb or decent over a mountain or two. And accompanying the driver´s wild racecar anitics are some amazing vistas of the surrounding contryside. Just georgous. The last few weeks have seen us exploring exactly what Colombia is all about. On our way to Bogota from Venezuala, we stopped at the historic colonial town of Giron, complete with cobblestone roads and traditional whitewashed buildings and beautiful plazas. There are many of these towns scattered throughout Colombia but our feeling was that once you have seen one, you pretty much have seen them all. From there we arrived in the sprawing metropolis of Bogota, with ... read more

Hey All, Well after two weeks on the continent of South America, now´s the time to fill you in on the Carribean Coast of Colombia... So we flew into Cartagena from Panama City and spent 5 days in this cool colonial city. Lots of history; Cartagena was the most important port city in Spanish Empire to move the gold off this continent. As a result, it has built up some impressive architecture including large elaborate cathedreals, huge stone walls, and numerous forts and convents scattered around the area. Highlights in Cartegena would definately be walking around the old city ceter, which has beautiful colonial architecture. The fort, El Castillo de San Felipe was great too. It is an impressive fort overlooking the old city and has a elaborate network of tunnels that you can go exploring ... read more

Panama City! Big place, home to over a million people. Its skyline looks very similar to Vancouver´s, with many more under construction. Panama is an international banking center with over 80 international banks (including ScotiaBank) and the skyline reflects this. After an extremely cold (like sleeping bag cold) overnight bus from Bocas del Torro, we arrived in the city. Panama city is very influenced by the U.S., with freeways, big bridges and huge shopping malls. The US had full sovereignty over the Canal Zone until 2000 so I guess it only makes sense....(not to mention every American fast food chain is found here too). There are hundreds of semi-retired U.S. school buses on the roads that have been pimped out; including suspension lifts, headers, custom exhausts and detailed paint jobs! Pretty amusing seeing these beasts roaring ... read more

Happy Holidays! Greetings from the sun, the sand and the surf! We are having a very different holiday experience than the one we are both used to back at home! So we finally met up with our good buddy Erik in a little surf town on the southern tip of the Nicoya Pennisula called Mal Pais/Santa Theresa (basically a gravel strip with shops all along it spread between two municipalities). We have been living it up as surf bums for almost the last three weeks. Life is pretty simple down here; eat, sleep and surf, which has caused the two of us absolutely no problems getting used to. We have met a bunch of excellent people while we have been here (Dave, Matt, Pedro, Laura, Shawna, CJ, Sophie, Gord, Andrew) and have enjoyed hanging out with ... read more

To get to Costa Rica, the final leg of our voyage in Nicaragua consisted of a 10 hr overnight ferry ride to the southern end of lake Nicaragua. Luckly it didn't rain so Ben found a place to stretch out on the deck while Nastassia scored a bench all to herself inside. We even managed to catch a few hours of shut eye in between all the stops on the way down the lake. Three stops later we pulled into the town of San Carlos at the entrance to the Rio San Juan which drains Lake Nicaragua into the Caribbean. From here we cleared Nicaraguan immigration and then hopped aboard a smaller boat and went up the Rio Frio into Costa Rica. This was a cool ride, with spottings of turtles, monkeys, crocodiles and numerous birds ... read more