Our original New Year’s Eve plan was to go to Bocas del Toro a Carribean archipelago in the north western corner of Panama. However, reading between the lines of people’s experiences there and a quick scout around online left us thinking that Bocas the US’s latest Cancun-ised party spot was perhaps best left off our itinerary. Instead we elected for the rather more sedate mountain town of Boquete. Unfortunately also evaded by Americans but this lot were the retiree set whom we felt would be a little more manageable. We stayed in what is certainly the most comfortable host [View Full Entry]

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From Nicaragua we motored through Costa Rica to Panama just stopping for a nights rest in San Jose (Costa Rica’s capital). We have about two weeks to explore Panama the southern most country of Central American before we return to Costa Rica on January 13th to rendezvous with both sets of parents for two weeks. Panama was in our minds as just another country in the region and knowing nothing more about it than that it possessed a rather famous canal we did not have it down as a potential highlight. However, we’ve been impressed. Actually very impressed. Welcoming and friendly [View Full Entry]

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We crossed the border of Penas Blancas into Costa Rica just before lunch on December 27th leaving Nicaragua behind after four months on its territory. So we feel a moment for a little reflection about this place and its people. When we meet and chat with other travellers and they ask us our thoughts about Nicaragua our normal opening gambit is something like ‘we really don’t understand the country, particularly the culture’. Awareness of our ignorance is important as our four month stay doesn’t qualify us to be anything more than vaguely trained observers. Interestin [View Full Entry]

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When it’s hot and sunny it’s very difficult to be convinced that Christmas is close at hand. Even a good proliferation of plastic Christmas trees and solid smattering of fairy lights just didn’t quite propel us into the festive mood. When we were in San Juan Del Sur four weeks earlier, on the way back from a brief dip into Costa Rica to renew our visas, we had picked it as a good spot for Christmas. San Juan was a little fishing town not so long ago but with its big sweeping sandy beach lined bay and proximity to some stunning [View Full Entry]

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The last three weeks had been pretty slovenly for us, majoritively spent sat in Spanish classes or in front of the laptop planning, so we were ready for a decent hike to blow the cobwebs away. Upon first look volcano Maderas didn’t appear all that sizable. However, after later inspection we found it to be bigger than Ben Nevis the tallest peak in the British Isles. So that was probably why it was a little more demanding than expected even for us walkers who had grown used to lugging 14-plus kilos 25 kilometres-a-day across Spain a few months earlier. We quickly [View Full Entry]

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Ometepe Island, in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, is not much more than a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Granada. Or a slightly gruelling bus-taxi-ferry-bus if you want to keep yourself truly in touch with the backpacker scene. Apparently tourism hit Ometepe about seven years ago and the locals have taken to it nicely. The quintessentially grumpy service along with the harassing and misinformation of the taxi drivers is in perfect harmony with that on the main land. Ok so a bit unfair perhaps but as somebody somewhere once said a smile doesn’t cost anything. One of the American couples we me [View Full Entry]

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So we arrived at Granada, Nicaragua. Not to be confused with Granada, Spain. Although the lack of any whacking great Moorish fortress starring down upon you would quickly set you straight if you did have a glitch in you personal radar. We had two goals for Granada that was to bed down for enough days to get our post travel plans into substantive motion and not eat any greasy food. It is fair to say that we didn’t go out of our way to explore the delights Granada had to offer but the amount that we did it was somewhat limited [View Full Entry]

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Whilst ensconced in Spanish classes in Esteli we stayed with a family on what was a pseudo homestay. Pseudo in the sense that Ivania, the mother of the household, was quietly building her very own little hotel empire. Consequently, we were joined at our digs by two other foreign characters. Kenny, a rather boring fifty plus save-the-world obsessive from Florida (sorry Kenny you’re a nice guy but one more riveting lunch time exchange over tortillas and gallopinto would be one more far too many). And, Joe (Joseph) a rather interestingly mannered lad from Upstate New York who we first had d [View Full Entry]

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It is quite astonishing how incredibly tiring learning a language is. Just as our early days in Sabana Grande were extremely testing as our brains were thrown into a desperate and incessant neurological search for something to associate this new language with so it could be stored for future application. Four hours of Spanish classes every morning for two weeks gave our minds an Olympic workout of epic proportions. CENAC Spanish School in Esteli was the site of this mental bombardment. At the outset we did wonder how much Esteli’s finest Spanish maestros (sorry, that’s a lie as we [View Full Entry]

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Leaving after three months of staying within the intricate community of Sabana Grande brought a strange mix of emotions. Bidding farewell to Yelba, our host family mother, was poignant. Yelba had been wonderful providing us a cosy home and going out of her way to look after us even to the lengths of staying with us for two days and nights in hospital whilst we enjoyed the delights of an intestinal infection. Mauro, who ran the solar panel workshop, it was also sad to leave. His phenomenal patience with our faltering Spanish is worthy of the highest acclaims. However, mixed with [View Full Entry]

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