i am not sure what i was expecting when i arrived in panama city...maybe more miami and less new jersey. natural climate makes it a beautiful place but an obvious lack of concern for nature has damaged its appeal. wow...those feeling were obviously sitting on my chest for a while. whew!! We were bent on finding the good in this city and not to bash...but it was a hunt. Erin attempted a little jog in the morning to make it a half block before returning to the room announcing we may be in the wrong area. Knowing the power in numbers, [View Full Entry]

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Following our five star experience in Tamarindo with friends, we were hurled back into the world of backpackerdom in route to San Jose. Gone were the nice beds, kitchen and fresh coffee and replaced with cold showers, bunk beds with two inch mattresses and day old coffee. The bonus was a complimentary wonderbread breakfast topped with something that resembled strawberry jam. Despite the attached photo with the clean and green sign surrounded by garbage, we found the city to be quite charming and clean. We managed to take in three city parks, the national costa rica museum, the university campus, [View Full Entry]

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A special thanks to everyone for the kind words posted to our blog over the past couple of months. we have been getting a kick out of them and apologize for not being able to respond individually... we simply haven´t learned how. i know, sad. recent event.... with all of the memorable new year´s we have had in seattle, this year we were blessed to have seattle delivered to us in costa rica. colin, keith, mel, paul, howie, micah, and lalo made the journey down to enjoy tropical drinks on the beach as an alternative to the blustery northwest weather. the [View Full Entry]

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Okay, Okay...so we're a little slow in getting this blog out. The sun tends to slow productivity...examples of this are found around the globe. Due to our pressing time schedule to see some of our crew for New Years...we took the express route by bus through both El Salvador and Honduras. We stayed two nights in San Salvador and we were surprised with the sophistication and modern buildings that dot the skyline. We stayed in a great botique hotel to treat ourselves and split up the 20 hours of bus riding that abused our booties. We kept reminding ourselves of the [View Full Entry]

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hello friends and family!! thanks for tuning in again for the adventures of shane and emo. I (shane) had been to beautiful lake atitlan 5 years ago and knew it was well worth seeing again despite the twisting, winding, indy car dreaming, cattle dodging 2 hour bus ride that was involved. the view out the window the entire way is breathtaking..most of that breath being taken as we careen dangerously close to the 500 foot straight down embankments. now, i am not one to get car sick but this is will test the stomach of any battle hardened travel vet... or [View Full Entry]

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Antigua is the cutest town ever. Think small Italy--cobblestone streets, tons of courtyards and and espresso cafes. We have been living with a very nice family, mother and two beautiful children (2 and 8) who do not speak any english, but we´ve gotten along very well. The home is very humble, but we love having hot water! Spanish school proved more difficult than expected, but we´re celebrating as today was the final day. 4 hours-day all week--(not exactly vacation). We all have individual teachers and we study on top of a building that overlooks the city. we were lucky enough to [View Full Entry]

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You know that email where the jar is empty and the professor fills it with large rocks and asks if it´s full, the class says yes and then he adds small pebbles to show it´s not really full and asks again...the class says yes and he adds sand and when you think there´s no more room at all, the water still fits in (showing there´s always more room in your life...)....anyways, that was my first impression of Guatemala. The chicken bus we were on was full and when people were completely squished in, 10 more people got on. a few moments [View Full Entry]

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we had heard this little town just a few miles from the guatemala border was full of nice people but geez.... our taxi driver was actually smiling while heaving our packs into the trunk. it made you almost paranoid as to what he may know that you don´t...but in the end, i guess it was just that happy water they drink here. each and everyone we ran into here was helpful, happy and eager to hear your stories of travel. we decided to take in the local mayan ruins that sat atop their tiny town. the walk was welcomed as we [View Full Entry]

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*quick note: the photos for San Pedro and San Ignacio are mixed up...diving was in San Pedro and school girls in San Ignacio...sorry.... leaving Mexico behind and hitting the open road of Belize was next in the plans. on the retired school bus we met drew and adrian..a couple of fun adventure seekers with a plan to find some perfect kite surfing conditions. instead they talked us into putting off our plans of heading to guatemala and do some world famous diving off of the islands of belize. considering our rough schedule...we bit. we decided on ambergris caye..a tiny fishing town [View Full Entry]

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Mahahual is definitely being groomed for a future as just another jump off point for fat tourists looking to blow a few bucks on pink tequila and bad tank tops. Some investor has purchased the port and pier and sealed it off from "real mexico" and painted it bright colors and pumped in music that will make the middle aged tap their feet and show some white skin. So, we jump off the ship...the first to do this in a while we came to find out. We were the talk of the town and from the first minute security was eye'n [View Full Entry]

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