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Published: March 3rd 2006
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Hola amigos!
Well it's been a long time since I wrote last time, but I can tell you I have tried.. Uploading a photo has taken about 30 mins until now.. Anyway, this time it seems to work.
I don't know where to start. We have traveled all around the country, and Nicaragua, and we've had such a great time. Jenny left today so now I start traveling on my own. So about our trip, I think we have started a new way of traveling - speed traveling. Staying in a place for 3 nights is a long time. Try to squeeze in as much as possible. Do Nicaragua in a week.. Now that I don't have a time limit I guess it will be different.
We started off with a week end in San Jose and surroundings. The same night we arrived we had 10 minutes to get ready to go out. I never thought Jenny would be up for it after traveling all the way from Sweden, but yep, we were out dancing all night! Salsa, samba and reaggeton was waiting for us! And then, waking up to reaggeton music the next morning made me smile...
We made tico (Costa Rican) friends pretty soon and were invited to a party at someone's farm out on the country side. Apparently alcohol was not aloud to be sold around the elections, why these guys decided to make a party in their house instead. Good idea.
The next day we took a 6 hour bus/ferry ride to a beautiful beach, Montezuma (also called Montefuma or Monteganja..) Had a very relaxing time there and got to know some israeli guys we hung out with for a few days. Great beach life, some wild life (monkeys, birds and more) and went to a water fall. Very easy to do absolutely nothing. Having a pineapple on the beach.. A fruit juice with another fruit you've never tasted before.. Ok with me! That's PURA VIDA, as they say here..
From there we headed straight to Nicaragua. We though about going to a place just by the border, but since the bus went all the way to the city of Granada, we took it all the way there. Granada is a beautiful city, colonial style, amazing colors. We checked out the city and went out salsa dancing. From there we headed
San Jose, Costa Rica
The tica girl working at our favourite bakery to Ometepe island, which is two volcanoes with a lake around them. Pretty cool. One volcano is still active, so we stayed close to the other one. Went hiking and stayed at a nice beach. We went to a biological reserve to ask bout volunteer work for me, and ended up having a chat with the former Minister of tourism, who was chilling with a Cuba libre in the hammock. I saw his pictures with all different Central american presidents and other big guys. Later on it was the former Minister of natural resources who gave us a ride to our hostel at the other side of the island. He gave us his story, where he claimed he had a lot of kids on the island.. How many? Well, 25 all together. The oldest one is 41, the youngest is 6 months. And he's already seeing a new girl. She's only 23.
The tropical weather made us stay longer than planned on the island, it was so windy no boats could get to the island. We didn't know for how long we would be stranded there on the island. I didn't mind though, just another day on the beach
Montezuma, Costa Rica
Baseball battle with our israeli mates at the waterfall for us. Once we got off the island, we had our shortest visit so far, less than 24 hours in a little beach town on the west coast. We had a good time but went back to Costa Rica the next morning.
The border crossing was an interesting part, where you had to pay a dollar somewhere but we couldn't figure out if we were tricked or not. It all looked very dodgy.. We thought we were on the bus straight to Monteverde, but no no.. We were dropped off by a village, that when we got off only had a phone booth. No more buses left to Monteverde that day. But there was a taxi, and since he was our only option he could charge whatever. So we bargained it down to half the price and finally reached Monteverde..
That was a little paradise for me, with both a rain forest and a cloud forest. I went on hikes from early morning to late at night and saw all kinds of animals. Monkey, sloths, hummingbirds, snakes, tarantulas.. Also some pretty cool orchids. We also did a canopy tour, where you slide along a line through the tree
tops. It was a bit scary at first, but once you got the grip of it it was just to enjoy. The scariest part was the Tarzan swing! I didn't even know we were going to do it, cause tactically Jenny didn't inform me about it. So there we were, standing I don't know how high up in the air, the guys hooked me on to the line and there was no way back. Only jumping straight out into the jungle.... Oh my god I was so scared.. And then I was high on the adrenalin for quite a while.
Our next stop was going to be La Fortuna to see an active volcano and soak into the hot springs. Some guys we got to know along the way were also heading the same way, so we all jammed up on their jeep. Including Chopper, the dog. That was quite an experience.. The road took us through a beautiful landscape and to a river crossing... We were supposed to go straight through it but the jeep decided not to.. it got stuck right in the middle and we all got out and got soaked and tried to help out.
Jenny and I are no car mechanics, so we played with Chopper and took lots of pics. I'm sure the guys appreciated us then.
We finally reached La Fortuna, and the natural hot springs with warm water coming from the volcano. Soaked there until we all looked like raisins, and then we took off to check out volcano Arenal and its glowing lava. A very cool sight, I recommend it.
Only one week left now, and we thought it was time just to relax. So we headed down the coast, towards Manuel Antonio that we heard a lot about. Stayed right next to the nature reserve by the beach for a few days and had a very nice time. Almost every place had a Ladies''s night, which was fun, and there was a party every night. The best one was the beach party with salsa and reaggeton and I got to dance a lot! At first we had planned to stay there for the rest of the week, but I got the itch and four days later we were heading south again.
This time we stopped in Dominical, a great place for surfers and those who like
to watch surfers. Great chilled out place, not too touristy (yet) and believe it or not - we stayed in a tent. Well, one night on the beach...
That was it for our trip. Of course there's a lot more to tell but I doubt anyone even made through all of this story.. I'll try to write more often instead, and I'll add more pictures now and then.
Thanks for all the messages I got, sorry I haven't written you back, but I really enjoy getting a note now and then!!
Until next time...
Helena
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Madeleine
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WOW
Vilken resa...av alla dina resor måste ju denna resa vara den absolut mest spännande. I ditt fantstiska skrivande känns det som om man själv varit med på resan. Vad händer nu? Här hemma snöar det varje dag och jag kräks på det.När komer du hem? Frågan ställs även om du inte VILL HEM! Du är i allafall saknad...puss och kram madde