Zoe en Gyanendra

Last Thursday we went to the Somoto canyon. After a hard walk in a terrible sun, we jumped into the water (wearing a lifejacket) to float for a while, some parts walking, sometimes jumping from the rocks into the water. Luckily we could choose how high we jumped, Zoe was fine with 2-3m, but Gyanendra enjoyed a jump from 10m. Besides the adventure, we enjoyed the great views of the river in between the high rocks. And afterwards we had a very delicious lunch at the home of the guide. On Friday we went for 2 nights to Reserva Natural Miraflor, a community tourism project in the mountains. Besides the beautiful nature (cloud forest, tropical dry forest), you can observe the local rural lifestyle. There are many coffee plantations, but they also have other crops. Roads ... read more

Last Friday we went to Tortuguero, a destination we were not really planning to go because it's famous for it's sea turtle nesting, but it is not the right season to see that and because it is very touristic. But we heard and read many positive things about it so we decided to spend our last days in Costa Rica there. We took two busses and than a public boat, since Tortuguero is only accessible by water (or air). The boat trip itself was already great: we saw a few big crocodiles and many nice birds. And then we arrived in Tortuguero village, it felt like paradise: river at the west side, ocean at the east (about 200m further) and in between some wooden houses, sandy roads and no traffic (besides bicycles). About 1200 people are ... read more

"Pura Vida" (pure life) is the slogan of the Costa Rican people and that's what you hear a lot and how they live their life: relax and enjoy, everything will be ok! As we told you, we were planning to visit the Marino Ballena national park last sunday. After we woke up with the shouting of the howler monkeys (brulapen, our hotel was close to the forest), we took a boat trip. The guide told us we would see dolphins, but no whales, unless we would be very lucky. After about half an hour, the guide received a phonecall: another boat spotted a whale (yeah that's how it works a few kilometres away from the coast on the Pacific Ocean...). So we turned to another direction and went full speed to the place to be. And ... read more

We have been back home for a few days, celebrating Christmas, and on December 28th we took a long and turbulent flight to Havana. Most of time Zoe was scared during the flight. We arrived in Havana airport, it took Gyanendra for some time to get in. It seems they have never seen a Nepalese tourist before. We spent one day in Havana, walking around the atmospheric streets for hours. It is the first non-european city we see which is not extremely chaotic and nice to stroll around (and easy to find your way!). There are also no "no-go" neighborhoods and we didn't feel unsafe for a second (not only in Havana but in the whole country). The next day we shared a taxi with two other tourists (because the busses were fully booked) to Trinidad, ... read more

After having finished with festivals - dashain, tihar and Gyanendra’s brother's wedding party finally we have some free time. So we decided to have some fresh air of Himalaya, avoiding all those hassel and bassel of Kathmandu valley. Since long time Goshain Kunda has become an attraction trekking trail for us. December is off season for trekking. It is winter time and most of time snowing in the mountain and temperature decline till -20 degree. There were very few trekkers so we had ample of choice for the room. We had 6 days trekking that begin from Dhunche to Goshain Kunda. 12 december: Today we had to wake up early at 5 am but could not do so, as our alarm did not work. Taxi driver was already waiting for us in front of our house. ... read more