After a very confusing border crossing (we even had to help some Costa Rican nuns and a Dutch surfer, and we got help from an Iranian-American who lives in Costa Rica!) and a nine hour bus ride, we are now in Panama! We were on a through bus from San Jose CR to David, Panama, but still had to walk a quarter mile along the muddy, rutted Pan-American Highway between to Costa Rican border check point and the Panamanian check point. The Panamanians had a number of hoops for us to jump through: passports, entry card, proof of onward travel, luggage inspection, tourist card....these were all in different places and no one told you where to go next...in the middle of it, we were trying to get our bags inspected, but couldn't because we hadn't gotten ... read more

After a few days of unpleasantness of varying degrees of seriousness (some of which I will relate here, other parts will go with us to the grave unless they become amusing in the far future), we are now in another paradise. The hotel Amor de Mar in Montezuma to be exact. We travelled by bus and police pickup truck and taxi and ferry and bus and mini bus from La Fortuna to Montezuma on what we found out was the Saturday of a three day weekend in Costa Rica. It was Labor Day weekend and everyone had Monday off, so lots of people were travelling. We got into Montezuma after dark, tired and hungry. Every bar and restaurant seemed to be playing different music, loudly. After a horrible dinner of was supposed to be fish in ... read more

We took the overnight boat from Ometepe to the village of San Carlos, located at the head of the Rio San Juan. We had planned to go down to El Castillo, the site of a Spanish fort, and spend a few days before returning to San Carlos and then up the Rio Frio to Costa Rica. Some advice to anyone travelling this route: no matter what you hear or are told, you cannot access money using a bank card nor can you charge anything to a card once you leave Ometepe!!!!! No ATMs on Ometepe, and the bank in San Carlos wouldn´t even take travellers checks....!!! We had enough $$$ to stay just one night on the river.....so sad.... Back to the trip.... When the boat arrived, it took on passengers, lots of plantains (like large ... read more

We spent the day both walking around Granada and touring the city by horse drawn carriage. Granada has consistently beautiful architecture throughout the downtown area, which is protected as a historical district and buildings must conform to colonial standards. We visited a few churches and climbed the bell tower in one, to look over the city. We also went to the public market and the museum where artifacts from pre-Columbian civilizations are housed. These people migrated from Mexico to this area, passing through Aztec and Mayan cities on the way and were influenced by these civilizations. Granada was burned to the ground in the 1857 by an American, William Walker, who came in as a mercenary to help the city of Leon conquer Granada. He ruled the area for a short time, and when he left, ... read more

We are trying to make best of this week in Tegucigalpa....taking day trips, working out in the gym at the hotel, and watching movies on TV. On Wednesday, we took a local bus to the tourist town of Valle de Angeles. Bill described it as the "LaConner of the Tegucigalpa area". There are lots of souvenir shops and restaurants, horse drawn carriages to ride in and local color in the form of cowboys riding through town from time to time. Valle de Angeles, originally a mining town, is set high in the mountains and the ride up there was the best part. The bus cost $.50 each way. On Thursday, Bill tried to get his house documents that are supposedly in town, but all the FedEx offices were closed. So we decided to go to another ... read more