All part of the Adventure...

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Well, what shall I say, I finished the Volcano Trail and am back in San Jose. The Volcano Trail was an organised Tour by GAP Adventures. The plan was to cross 4 countries in 15 days, starting in Antigua, Guatemala via Honduras and Nicaragua back to San Jose passing lots of Volcanoes on the way. I initially booked this tour, because I thought it was easier to see a bit of every country in a short amount of time. And, yes I did indeed! It only meant that I was sitting on a bus for days and hours and hours at a time to accomplish this mission. Anyway, the tour was fully booked, so I was quite excited about travelling with 15 strangers back to San Jose. Something I didnt anticipate was a group of 12 girls and 3 guys!!! Can you believe this? I alrady imagined lots of fights and bitching! Anyway, I met up with part of the group on the Saturday night before the official start of the tour, purely because I ran into one of the girls, that had finished another tour with GAP and was carrying on travelling to San Jose. So there I was, gatecrashing the last meal of the group that came down from Mexico and had the most fun! We went for dinner and some people of the group, including me, went on for drinks afterwards. A few beers and Gin and Tonics later, I was on the dancefloor randomly dancing Salsa. I cant dance Salsa by the way, but nevermind. After the bar closed, all of us got "invited" to an After Party and more Salsa took place. I dont think I have ever danced so much in my life. It probably didnt help that there were about 50 guys in that club and less than 10 girls, so I didnt stop! Anyway, I think we took a TukTuk home at about 4am and I just passed out. I was actually supposed to go on a Volcano Tour at 6am, but couldnt quite face neither that one nor the one at 2pm.... oh well... I went for a walk in the park instead and for some random reason got offered a piece of someones Newspaper who must have thought, yeah that girl speaks Spanish and will surely understand the financial section of my Newspaper... I tried my best, even with hangover...
OK, the acutal Tour with GAP started on Monday morning at 6am. I met the rest of the group which seemed really nice and we started our journey to Copan in Honduras in a private shuttle. When we finally got to Copan, most of us went directly to the Copan Ruins to learn a bit about the Mayan culture. We hired a guide, called Marvin and got a 3 hour tour about the history of the Ruins, all about the kings, the hieroglyphs stairway with the history of all the kings before 18 rabbit and mucho mas! If you ever visit the Ruins, try to find Marvin, he charges something like $5 per Person and is really good! Super funny and very knowledgeable!
We only stayed in Copan for one night before heading to the Bay Islands for some sun, sea and snorkelling. Unfortunately the weather spoiled our plans. With some heavy storms in La Ceiba, the ferry to Utila was cancelled and we had to stay in that little town nobody knew anything about. Well, thanks to some taxi driver, we found a place to stay. Instead of partying all night in Utila, we ordered Pizza, bought drinks and snacks and played cards for most of the night! With everyone still being quite affected by the Rum and Coke the previous night, the hour long boat ride to Utila promised to be fun! Well, it was fun for the first 20 minutes or so, with massive waves but after that, quite a few sick bags were passed around... Oh well, its all part of the adventure!! When it finally stopped raining, we actually got to enjoy the beautiful island! Snorkelling was soo much fun! We took a boat to a tiny island which we basically had to ourselves and just enjoyed the sun for a change!
The next 2 days meant sitting on a bus straight to get to Nicaragua. We stopped overnight in Tegocigalpa, the capital of Honduras, which is a very big and busy city! No idea what taxi driver have to do to get their license here, but lets just say, I am glad to be alive! Luckily we just stayed one night and started early the next day to get to Granada.
One of the best things in Granada> Mojitos! We stayed in a place right in the city centre and the bar opposite of our hotel mixed the best drinks for just $1,50! Great!!! As the Tour was called Volcano Trail, we started our first hike up to the Cloud forest around Mombacho. 4 hours up and down the Trail. It was quite an easy hike, as the Forest was quite cool and provided a lot of shade!
Not wanting to sit still, I went on a Kayak Tour the next day with 4 other members of the group, stopping at monkey island with the monkeys nearly jumping on the kayaks! Kayaking is so much fun too!!
The nights meant more Salsa and Cuba Libre! The Rum in Nicargua is surprisingly nice!
Anyway at our next stop in Ometepe, we had the choice between sun bathing and climbing another volcano. As I am not much of a beach lazing around person, I challenged myself to climb Concepcion, a 1610m high Volcano wirh rocks all the way to the top, an estimated 10hour hike! Did I mention, that its a steep hike? So there I was at 5am in the morning with a group of 10 people and 2 guides, ready to start the trek. We decided to take 2 guides, in case people cant make it to the top. So basically me! Anyway, we lost 2 people after the first 200 metres, basically where they could still go back without guide. To cut a longm painful story short: I surprisingly made it up to the top and back down in about 9.5 hours!!!!! Can you believe this? Well, I cant although I have proof! And the best thing, instead of wearing hiking boots, I wore my trekking sandals which is why some people call me a little more than crazy! This trek was probbly the worst thing I have done and I hated most of itm but the feeling afterwards, realizing what I have achieved was quite overwhelming! Ok I do knowm tht I sound quite melodramatic now, but I am proud of myself! Also, one of the amazing crazy hike things is the Adrenaline rush! Love it! It keeps you going for hours! We even partied on at night!
So the next day meant crossing countries again! Off to lovely Costa Rica, for the final 2 stops. The first was Monteverde, where most of the Hiking group just tried to recover and didnt move due to pain in nrealy every muscle! Well, I didnt stop me from visiting a frog farm to see all the colourful Costa Rican frogs and neither did it stop me from doing a Canopy Tour which was less exciting than I hoped it would bem but it was still fun! Especially the Tarzan sling, where the staff basically pushes you down from a Platform and you swing for about 3 minutes after. Fun, but a little sickening... It must be like bungee jumping, the initial free fall.. Anyway.
The final stop before returning to San Jose was La Fortuna, where I have been before. So I had the chance to ralax for a change and enjoy some delicious coffee and ice cream in a place called "Down to Earth". One of the things I did book though was a group evengin in the Balti Hot Springs with 16 different pools! Soooo nice! And soo relaxing! I did manage to spoil the evening for myself though in true Katrin-style, when we found some huge slides which were just openedm I decided to go down one, nearly fell out and bumped my head quite badly on the slide... Ouch! Yep it really did hurt quite a bit! Well, its all part of the adventure!! 😉
Part of the adventure was also the Rafting trip on our last day! Oh my godm so much fun! I realize I say that about everything, but Rafting just is pure fun! Luckily I didnt fall out of the boat, but jumped from a hillside at our half way stop! Scary but even more fun!
So thats it! Back in San Jose we all went out for a final dinner and then kind of parted as people had to get early flights and went on to other things.
Although I had my doubts about the trip being only 15 days for 4 countries, we have seen and done quite a lot and thanks to the group it was soo much fun!!! :-)
One thing though, I didnt feel like I got to know much of the cultural differences other than the obvious levels of poverty... Just another reason to return I guess and the PADI certificate in Utila as well...
Oh, for pictures, please follow the Links below! (Just copy and paste to your Browser) Hasta luego y disfrutan!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19255&l=f9df5&id=532358485
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20288&l=fb912&id=532358485

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Comments

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Travel-Troet
Hey travel-girl, I just booked my fly to India. It goes on 13th of September. Will we see again till my fly? When you´ll come back to Germany and - what I´m most interested in - will you ever ;-)? Looking forward hearing from you! You didn´t answer my last mail by the way :-(. *hugs*, Die Münstertröte